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CAMBRIDGE COUNTY GEOGRAPHIES 

General Editor: F. H. H. Guillemard, M.A., M.D. 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 

C. F. CLAY, Manager 

ILonUon: FETTER LANE, E.C. 

3E&mburg!) : 100 PRINCES STREET 



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£rt» gorft: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
tSomltnp, (Calcutta nno fflatiras: MACMILLAN AND Co., 
Toronto: J. M. DENT AND SONS, Ltd. 
2ToUho: THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 



Ltd, 



All rights reserved 



Cambridge County Geographies 

BEDFORDSHIRE 



'"' 



C. GORE CHAMBERS, M.A. 

Late Assistant Master at Bedford Grammar School 



With Maps, Diagrams and Illustrations 



Cambridge : 

at the University Press 

1917 



PREFACE 

"TV /T OST people in Bedford, and not a few outside, 
-*-*-*- knew the late Charles Gore Chambers as a man of 
great learning, wide reading, and deep thoughts. All his 
pupils found him sympathetic and ready to meet them 
on their own ground, whether language or literature, 
history or architecture, and he could draw out their 
ideas and suggest just the right thing to them. On 
almost any subject he went into details with loving 
thoroughness. And so, when he took this book in hand, 
though he already knew the county well, he set to work 
to explore it systematically, visited almost every place, 
entered every parish church, investigated both the past 
and the present state of the lace and straw industries, 
and in general put all his energies into the task that 
lay to hand. He was, in particular, much interested 
in the development of Luton and the past history 
of Dunstable; as regards the former he often dwelt 
on its continuous connection with Bedford, from the 
earliest days of which the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has 
a record, down to modern days when the Midland 



vi PREFACE 

Railway connects them as once did the Alfred- 
Guthrum treaty line. I would also mention his keen 
pursuit of geological knowledge, especially his appre- 
ciation of the epoch-making discoveries of flints by 
Mr James Wyatt and Mr Worthington Smith, by which 
they established the existence of palaeolithic man. 

It has been a great grief to us all that he was unable 
to correct the proofs. My task has simply been to make 
such alterations as he would certainly have made if he 
had had the chance (for the rapid lapse of time had 
already made some of his statements to be out-of-date) 
and to collect photographs. Mr W. N. Henman of 
Bedford had already taken some at his request, and we 
consulted together about taking or choosing others 
where we knew that he wished some place to be illus- 
trated. Mr William Austin, of Rye Hill, kindly and 
readily provided some of Luton ; and Mr Richmond, J. P., 
of Heath and Reach, did the same for Leighton. 



J. E. MORRIS. 



Bedford Grammar School, 
March 1917- 



CONTENTS 



i , 

2. 

3- 
4- 
5- 
6. 

7- 
8. 

9- 

io. 
i i. 

I 2. 

13- 
14. 

16. 

17. 

18. 

19. 
20. 

I I 



County and Shire. Origin of Bedfordshire 
General Characteristics. Position and Natura 
Conditions ..... 

Size. Shape. Boundaries 
Surface and General Features . 
Watersheds. Rivers 
Geology .... 

Natural History .... 

Climate ...... 

Population, Race Affinities, Type, Dialect, etc 
Agriculture ..... 

Market Gardening .... 

Industries — Lace- Making. Straw-Plaiting 
Minerals ...... 

History ...... 

Antiquities ..... 

Architecture — (a) Ecclesiastical 
Architecture — {b) Domestic 
Communications — Past and Present . 
Administration and Divisions . 
Roll of Honour .... 

The Chief Towns and Villages of Bedfordshire 



PAGE 

1 



10 
13 
19 
29 

38 

43 

47 

5 2 

55 

68 

73 

86 

101 

118 

129 

142 

149 

169 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Part of the first page of Domesday Book 
The Greensand Range seen from Cleat Hill . 
Sharpenhoe Chalk Heights seen from Toddington 
Source of the River Lea at Leagrave 

The Ouse at Bedford 

" Doggers " in Kellavvays Rock . ... 

Sand-pit at Cainhoe near Clophill, showing the in 

tion of Peroxide of Iron in bands 
Nest of Tufted Duck 
Young of Little Owl {Athene Noctua) 
Ploughing on heavy land at Bletsoe 
Lace-maker at work 
Straw-splitting implement 
Rolling-mill for flattening the straw plait 
Luton .... 
Sand-pit at Sandy . 
Totternhoe Chinch Quarries 
Saxon Sword found in Russell Park, Bedford 
Plan of Willington Camp 
Bedford Castle 
Palaeolithic flint implement 
Bronze Age Palstaves 
Anglo-Saxon glass Drinking Cup 
Cainhoe Castle Hill 
Norman doorway, St Thomas's Chapel, Meppershal 
Nave of Priory Church, Dunstable . 



ultra- 



PAGE 

3 
5 

12 

14 

i7 
23 

25 
31 
36 

50 
57 
61 

63 
66 
69 

7i 
74 
76 

79 
88 
90 

97 
100 
102 
104 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



IX 



South door, Eaton Bray Church 

St Mary's Church, Felmersham 

Nave arcading, Eaton Bray Church 

Elstow Church .... 

St Lawrence's, Wymington 

Stevington Church .... 

All Saints' Church, Leighton Buzzard 

Cottages at Ampthill 

Cottages at Carding ton . 

Cardington Manor House 

Ruins of Houghton Conquest House 

Elstow Green, showing Moot Hall and rei 

Someries Castle, Luton . 

Old Cottages, Luton 

Icknield Way winding under the Dunstabl 

Suspension Bridge, Bedford 

Park Road, Luton .... 

The " Bedford Times " . 

Newnham Reach, River Ouse 

Harrold Bridge and Causeway 

Bedford County School or Elstow School 

Bedford Grammar School 

Town Hall, Bedford ; formerly the Gra 

Statue of John Howard, Bedford 

Sir Joseph Paxton .... 

Sir William Harpur 

Chicksands Priory .... 

William, first Duke of Bedford 

Statue of Bunyan and St Peter's Churcl 

John Bunyan ..... 

The Modern School, Bedford . 

Dunstable Priory .... 

Bunyan's Cottage, Elstow 



of Cross 



Dow 



School 



Bedford 



PAGE 

I05 
106 
107 
I IO 

I I 2 

II + 
Il6 
Il8 
I 20 
I 22 
123 
124 
127 
128 
I30 
133 

r 35 

i37 
J 39 
141 
142 

*43 
148 
154 
156 

i57 
*59 
161 

165 
166 
171 

i74 
176 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Market Cross, Leighton Buzzard . 
Luton Parish Church .... 
Canopied Font, St Mary's, Luton . 
The Font, St Mary's Church, Studham . 
" Motte " and Late Norman church tower 
Turvey Abbey ..... 

Church, Dovehouse, and Stables, Wellington 
Diagrams ...... 

MAPS 

Bedfordshire, Topographical . 

„ Geological .... 

Relief Map of Bedfordshire . 
England and Wales — Annual Rainfall . 



Tl 





PAGE 




179 




180 




181 




186 


hurleigh 


187 




189 




190 




192 


Front 


Cover 


Back Cover 




39 




4i 



The illustrations on pp. 3, 14, 23, 25, 57, 61, 63, 69, 74, 
88, 90, 97, 100, 102, 105, 107, 118, 120, 122, 137 and 157 are 
from photographs by Mr W. N. Henman ; those on pp. 5, 12, 50, 
71, 104, 112, 114, 124, 130, 141, 159, 174, 187 and 190 are 
from photographs by Dr J. E. Morris ; those on pp. 17, 1 10, 123, 
127, 128, 133, 135, 139, 142, 143, 148, 154, 165, 171, 176, 180 
and 189 are from photographs by Messrs F. Frith and Co., Ltd.; 
those on pp. 31 and 36 from photographs by Mr G. G. C. Bull ; 
the map on p. 39 is from the raised map by Mr F. Hawkins 
Piercy ; the illustrations on pp. 66 and 181 are from photo- 
graphs by Mr F. Thurston, Luton ; the plan on p. 76 is by 
Mr A. R. Goddard ; the illustration on p. 79 is from an educa- 
tional wall card by Mr C. H. Ashdown ; those on p. 106 from 
photographs by Mr S. Milne; those on pp. 116 and 179 from 
photographs by Mr R. Richmond; that on p. 156 from a 
photograph by Mr D. Macbeth; those on pp. 161 and 166 from 
photographs by Mr E. Walker ; that on p. 1 86 from a photograph 
by the Author. 



i. County and Shire. Origin of Bed = 
fordshire. 

England has been divided for at least nine hundred 
years into Shires or Counties. The word shire is the 
modern form of an old English word meaning a district 
or territory or department of administration — a part 
shorn off from a larger area. It has the same derivation 
as the word share, the verb to shear, and the share of 
a plough. At first shires were under the superintendence 
of an Ealdorman, a title later displaced by that of Eorl. 
But the connection between the Eorl (Earl) and the 
shire became less close, and the management of the 
shire passed into the hands of a Shire-reeve or Sheriff. 
This was already the case when the Domesday Book 
was compiled in the last quarter of the eleventh century. 
From the Conquest onwards official documents were for 
long written either in Latin or French. Earl appeared 
in Latin as Comes, in French as Comte; Sheriff as Vice- 
comes and Vicomte; while the Shire became Comitatus 
and Comte. But whereas Earl and Sheriff remained the 
English forms in general use, the French word Comte 
gave rise to the English County, which has survived 
as a familiar name for Shire. 



2 BEDFORDSHIRE 

A glance at a list of the names of the shires will 
disclose a difference of form that suggests a difference 
of origin. Many of them are simply formed by adding 
shire to the name of a town. If all such names be 
written down in their proper positions upon a blank 
map, it will be found that they lie continuously, and 
that some spaces south of the Thames, those along the 
coast between the Thames and the Wash, and the 
districts covered by Cumberland, Westmorland, North- 
umberland, and Durham, remain unoccupied. In other 
words the shires named from towns correspond to the 
old kingdoms of Mercia and Deira. The southern 
kingdom of Wessex gained supremacy over them early 
in the ninth century, but, before it had sufficiently 
established its power to organise the whole country 
under one central government, the Scandinavian in- 
vasions began. It was not till the middle of the tenth 
century that Mercia and South Northumbria were again 
restored to the West Saxon kings, and it is not till the 
latter end of that century that we find any mention of 
Midland shires. 

Bedfordshire is first mentioned in the Chronicle under 
the date ion. Bedford is earlier recorded as the place 
where the West Saxons gained a victory over the Britons 
at the end of the sixth century, and the towns of Hertford, 
Buckingham, Bedford, and Huntingdon are all mentioned 
as strongholds at the beginning of the tenth century ; but 
there is no evidence that any regular provincial division 
existed at that time in this part of England. It will be 
clear then that there is a great difference between shires 



COUNTY AND SHIRE 3 

such as Essex and Kent and those like Bedfordshire or 
Cambridgeshire. The two former had gradually acquired 
a unity and form as separate kingdoms struggling with 
their neighbours and adapting themselves to the con- 
veniences and defence of natural boundaries; whereas 
Bedfordshire and the counties which surround it would 



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Part of the first page of Domesday Book, giving the entry 
for Bedford and the Royal land of Leighton 

seem to have been carved out to meet the requirements 
of the collection of taxes, the administration of justice, 
and the organisation of a militia. It is impossible to do 
more than conjecture the causes which led to the great 
difference in their sizes, and the variety and irregularity 
of their shapes. While such counties as Kent and Essex 
are older than their towns, the town of Bedford is far 



4 BEDFORDSHIRE 

older than the shire; and whereas Chelmsford and Maid- 
stone are towns in Essex and Kent, Bedfordshire is rather 
a shire about Bedford. 

It seems likely that the following were some of the 
conditions under which Bedfordshire assumed the form 
which it practically retains at the present day. Bedford 
was to be its centre and citadel. To suit the arrange- 
ments of the Exchequer, the county was to contain about 
1200 hides, the hide representing the unit by which land 
taxes were assessed. It was not advisable to divide big 
parishes such as those of Luton and Eaton Socon; and 
if possible a county should be wholly within one diocese. 
The county boundary would often be drawn irregularly 
to include the whole of a manor instead of dividing it 
between two shires. Physical conditions do not appear 
to have had much influence in shaping Bedfordshire. 



2. General Characteristics. Position 
and Natural Conditions. 

The natural features and position of a county, as we 
shall see, have no little effect upon its history. The 
earliest evidences of human occupation in Bedfordshire 
are to be found, as might be expected, upon the higher 
and drier ground, upon the gravel banks that had 
accumulated in the bed of the prehistoric Ouse and 
elsewhere, and along the elevated chalk tracts. The 
settlement of England by Saxons and Angles was effected 



GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 5 

by tribes which landed some on the south, some on the 
east coast, and only gradually made their way into the 
interior. The position of Bedfordshire makes it likely 
that for a long time much of it was a "no man's land." 
It was probably reached from the Wash by the waterway 
of the Ouse,f,and from East Anglia by the chalk hills 




The Greensand Range seen from Cleat Hill 



along the south, but there is no record of any such 
invasion. The West Saxons undoubtedly approached it 
along the chalk ridge escarpment from the south, 
following the line of the Icknield Way from the Thames, 
and in the seventh century it was included in the Anglian 
kingdom of Mercia. But before Anglo-Saxon times the 



6 BEDFORDSHIRE 

Roman occupation of Britain had made systematic 
communication with the north and west necessary for 
London as a trading centre and Colchester as a military 
centre. The main military road from Colchester to 
the north (the Ermine Street) had to avoid the fens, 
and passed through Cambridgeshire at no great distance 
east of Bedfordshire, while an alternative length of it 
followed the Ivel through Biggleswade and Sandy. The 
great north-western route (the Watling Street) only 
crossed the south-western corner of Bedfordshire at 
Dunstable. The position of these roads thus left the 
county somewhat in the lurch. The south-west, south, 
and south-east parts were in easy communication with the 
outer world, while Bedford had its water road, the Ouse, 
and was probably linked up from early times by a 
roadway over the gravel to Sandy. But the clay hills 
of the north, the marshy plain and sand deserts of the 
centre, and the bogs of Flitwick and Westoning remained 
isolated. 

Indirectly, too, the position and physical features 
of the county affected its history in the ninth century. 
When Wessex made terms with the Danes the Ouse 
above Bedford, a line from Bedford to the source of the 
Lea, and the Lea itself were selected as a frontier. The 
reason for taking this line, instead of the more direct 
line of Watling Street, was doubtless to include Luton 
and the south-western part of Bedfordshire, which had 
been originally taken from the Britons in the sixth 
century, within the area of Wessex. 

In prehistoric days scrubby forest covered much of 



GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 7 

what was not marsh. When the woods were cleared 
from the clay lands which occupy two-thirds of the 
county, the soil proved well adapted for the growth of 
wheat, and though the central belt of sand was not 
valuable for the same purpose, its intermixture with the 
clays upon its slopes and along the valley of the Ivel 
produces a loam of exceptional fertility. On the chalk 
downs of the south nature afforded abundant food for 
sheep, and in the rich meadows that fringe the Ouse 
and the Ivel there was excellent pasture for cattle. 
Thus Bedfordshire was naturally an agricultural county, 
and the produce of the whole area was in easy reach of 
the metropolis. Wheat and barley were the staple 
products, and in course of time, as has happened in the 
case of other industries, one of these by-products grew 
in importance. The plaiting of straw and the manu- 
facture of hats became specialised, and centred at the 
grain markets of South Bedfordshire and North Bedford- 
shire. It was probably its position upon Watling Street 
that gave Dunstable the precedence, and competition, 
helped by the extension of the Midland Railway to 
London, that carried the trade to Luton. The greensand 
hills from Leighton to Potton were for ages little more 
than barren waste covered with woods. But it was a 
hunting ground, and as such was constantly visited even 
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Henry VIII 
and James I. The Cistercians, who always sought the 
waste land and made efforts to turn deserts into gardens, 
had settled here at Woburn and Warden in the twelfth 
century, and in course of time a succession of parks 



8 BEDFORDSHIRE 

and country seats spread over the range and its 
slopes. 

The nearness of Bedfordshire to London had another 
result. Every progress of a monarch, every expedition 
to the north-west or north taken by judges or adminis- 
trators made the county known, and many government 
officials, successful lawyers, and wealthy London 
merchants bought estates and settled in the county. 
On the other hand many Bedfordians successfully sought 
their fortunes in London and brought wealth into the 
shire. In recent years, too, the position of Bedfordshire 
has brought great changes. When the Midland Railway 
sought fresh fields for its energies by securing its extension 
to London, it found the two ancient routes of Watling 
Street and Ermine Street occupied by the London 
and North-Western and the Great Northern Railways. 
It struck a line between them, and so opened a new era 
in Bedfordshire, as it not only enormously developed the 
trade of Luton and the educational conveniences of 
Bedford, but brought to both a number of important 
manufactures. Yet the northern upland of the county 
has still remained untouched. 



3. Size. Shape. Boundaries. 

Although the demarcation of the county boundary 
does not as a rule follow marked physical lines, it 
approximates to the line of watersheds on the extreme 
east and on the north-west, and on the west it roughly 



SIZE SHAPE BOUNDARIES 9 

follows the minor water-parting between the main Ouse 
and its tributary the Ousel or Lovet, which stream 
forms the county limit for a short distance between 
Eaton Bray and Heath, a northern member of Leighton 
Buzzard. The Ouse itself is the boundary for a few 
miles north and south of Turvey, and again in the 
north-east from north of St Neots to south of Eaton 
Socon ; while the boundary follows the Rhee, a tributary 
of the Cam, for a mile or two south of Dunton. The 
shape of the shire is an irregular oblong, lying north 
and south, and bulging to the east into Cambridgeshire. 
Its greatest length from north to south is 36 miles, its 
greatest breadth east and west 20 miles; but below the 
eastern bulge it measures only about 12 miles across, 
and this again is reduced to about seven in the chalk 
extension south of Dunstable and Luton. The most 
marked irregularities in its bounds, which had remained 
with little alteration from the time of the Domesday 
survey, were rectified by the Local Government Act 
of 1888. The parish of Swineshead, though nearly shut 
off from Huntingdonshire, belonged to that county, but 
is now in Bedfordshire, and Tillbrook has been sur- 
rendered in compensation. A spur of Hertfordshire used 
to intrude between Luton on the east and Studham and 
Whipsnade on the west, with the result that Kensworth, 
Caddington, Studham, and Markyate Street were divided 
between the two counties ; the three former are now 
wholly in Bedfordshire, and the last belongs to Hertford- 
shire. At Everton on the north-east there was a com- 
plicated threefold division between Huntingdonshire, 



10 BEDFORDSHIRE 

Cambridgeshire, and Bedfordshire; it is now for most 
purposes in Bedfordshire, but Tetworth, which forms 
ecclesiastically a joint parish with it, is in Huntingdon- 
shire. An island of Hertfordshire containing the Chapel 
Farm and the old Chapel of St Thomas lay in Meppershall 
parish; but it is now included in Bedfordshire. The 
explanation of such irregularities often lies in claims of 
manorial jurisdiction over outlying members of a manor, 
the outlying members of a manor in another county 
being returned as part of such manor in the county to 
which it belonged. 

Bedfordshire is smaller than any other county with 
the exception of Rutland, Middlesex, and Huntingdon- 
shire. Its area measures 303,000 acres, that of Yorkshire 
nearly 3,000,000, that of Rutland less than 100,000. 
But it will be perhaps more useful to compare it with 
the group of counties which surround it. Of these 
Huntingdonshire alone is smaller, having rather more 
than two-thirds the acreage. Bedfordshire is equal in 
area to about three-quarters of Hertfordshire, rather 
more than three-fifths of Buckinghamshire, rather more 
than half of Cambridgeshire, and less than a half of 
Northamptonshire. 



4. Surface and General Features. 

The north of Bedfordshire rises almost immediately 
from the north bank of the Ouse into a mass of clay 
divided into separate blocks by the brooks which have 



SURFACE AND GENERAL FEATURES 11 

marked out valleys or denes. It is composed of boulder- 
clay on Oxford clay, and affords a rather monotonous 
scenery chiefly consisting of cornland with little wood. 
The least inviting part is that which stretches from 
Knotting past Bolnhurst and Keysoe to Eaton Socon. 
The descent to the north towards Kimbolton is pictur- 
esque, the view down over the Ouse from Tempsford 
to St Neots as seen from the road between Barford and 
Eaton Socon is a fine one, while in the west there is much 
picturesque broken ground about the brook that passes 
through Sharnbrook. The north-western rectangle 
lying north of a line from Sharnbrook to Harrold is 
largely under grass, and in many respects seems to 
belong rather to Northampton: most of it indeed 
drains to the Nene. Along the whole course of the Ouse, 
and to some extent along the Ivel, a succession of rich 
grass meadows and endless willows and alders afford 
the quiet charm characteristic of sluggish southern 
English rivers. South of the Ouse the Vale of Bedford 
lies flat and uninteresting for a breadth of almost five 
miles. Passing travellers often identify Bedfordshire 
with this kind of scene, but it is really not characteristic 
of the county. South of the plain of Bedford, in a curve 
sweeping from Leighton Buzzard on the south-west to 
Sandy and Potton on the north-east and broadening 
over a width of about five miles, is the range of the 
lower greensand. It is a region of parks and plantations 
and reclaimed waste and bog. On the lower edges of 
it to the east and south, where the surrounding clay 
intermingles with the sand, its rich loam gives the 



12 BEDFORDSHIRE 

opportunity for much vegetable and flower gardening, 
and Sandy and Biggleswade send large supplies of such 
produce to the London and northern markets. Aspley 
Guise and Woburn Sands are notable as health and 
holiday resorts, their elevation, sandy soil, and pine woods 
adding to the attractions of charming and varied scenery. 




Sharpenhoe Chalk Heights seen from Toddington 

South of the sand range there is a narrow low-lying 
track of gault clay, which passes upwards into chalk 
marl, and so rises on the south in the fine chalk 
escarpment that is so conspicuous at Sharpenhoe and 
Barton. The chalk downs gradually rise to about 
540 feet above Luton, to about 600 above Dunstable, 
and to 800 at Kensworth three miles farther south. 



SURFACE AND GENERAL FEATURES 13 

The county thus shows four parallel belts, the 
northernmost reminiscent of its neighbour Northampton- 
shire, the Vale of Bedford suggesting Huntingdonshire, 
the greensand range in the middle which recalls Surrey, 
and the Chiltern District of the south that might be 
easily matched in Berkshire or Wiltshire. 



5. Watersheds. Rivers. 

Water which falls upon the surface of Bedfordshire 
may reach the sea by several channels, the Nene, the 
Ouse, or the Thames. It may reach the Ouse directly, 
or by the Ivel, within the county; by the Ousel (or 
Lovet) at Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire; by the 
Kim, which is mainly in Huntingdonshire; or by the 
Rhee and Cam in Cambridgeshire. It may flow into 
the Thames between Runnymead and Staines, passing 
thither by the Ver and Coin, or it may be borne by the 
Lea into the lower reaches at Blackwall. Of these the 
Rhee takes so little water from Bedfordshire as to be 
negligeable. On the extreme north-west the watershed 
runs south-east from the neighbourhood of Souldrop 
along the "forty-foot" (a disused grass track) between 
Hinwick Lodge and Colworth House, across Odell Wood 
to Dungee Corner at the north of Harrold Park. From 
the northern part of Odell Wood a stream runs north- 
west through Hinwick, joins another which rises north 
of the forty-foot and east of Hinwick Lodge, passes 
Poddington, and, reinforced by a brook from Wymington, 



14 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



leaves the county to the east of Farndish and makes 
its way into the Nene. 

The Ver leaves the base of the upper chalk in the 
depression up which the Watling Street passes between 
Caddington and Kensworth; the Ousel rises at Well- 
head on the Icknield Way, where it skirts the western 




Source of the River Lea at Leagrave 



foot of the Dunstable downs; and the Lea rises about 
two miles north of Luton and three east by north of 
Dunstable, where several springs bubble up close to 
Leagrave railway station. These three streams are 
thrown out at the base of the lower chalk by the 
hard layer of Totternhoe stone, which arrests the further 
penetration of the water stored in the huge mass of lower, 



WATERSHEDS RIVERS 15 

middle, and upper chalk above. No part of the surface 
of these downs retains water except a few hollows that 
still hold vestiges of drift or other clays, and these are 
merely stagnant ponds of no great depth. At Dunstable, 
which is 480 feet above mean sea-level, wells must be 
sunk for nearly 80 feet to obtain water; those sunk on 
Caddington and Kensworth hills are proportionately 
deeper; indeed a well at Mount Pleasant, which stands 
but 40 feet below the highest point of Kensworth hill 
(800 feet), is 350 feet in depth 1 . Four hundred feet 
above sea-level is the average height at which springs 
flow from the base of the lower chalk, the Ousel rising 
at 420, the Ver at 434, and the Lea at 370. 

The northern escarpment of the lower chalk runs 
slightly south of west from Barton by Sharpenhoe, 
Charlton Cross, and Houghton Regis to Billington, and 
completes the water-parting between the Ver and Lea 
on the south, the Ousel on the west, and the catchment 
basin of the Ivel on the north-east. Turning at an 
angle to the north-west from Charlton Cross, a line 
passing along the gault on the south of Toddington 
Hill and crossing the sand range by Eversholt and the 
east of Woburn Park, reaches Ridgmont, sends down 
Crawley Brook on the west to the Ousel, and on the 
east two streams from Ridgmont and Toddington Hill. 
These both flow into Flitwick Bog, and, leaving it as 
the Flitt, pass Clophill, and are joined at Shefford by 
a stream from the south that has come from below 

1 Several of these deep wells are worked by donkeys, which stand 
inside a hollow cylinder and tramp it round as a squirrel turns his cage. 



16 BEDFORDSHIRE 

Harlington, passed south of Wrest Park and fed its 
ornamental waters, and been reinforced by another from 
Barton. The Flitt runs on from Shefford to the Ivel, 
which it joins above Langford. 

The Ivel itself rises near Baldock in Hertfordshire, 
enters the county between Stotfold and Astwick, and 
receives the water of the Hiz just north of Arlesey. On 
the east it is divided from the Rhee and Cam by the 
clay heights of Dunton. At Lower Caldecote it receives 
a stream that comes down from the clays of Cambridge- 
shire to the east of Gamlingay, by Potton and Sutton, fed 
by two branches, one from Wrestlingworth and one that 
comes to it through Stratton Park from the neighbour- 
hood of Edworth. The only western tributary of the 
Ivel is a small brook that joins it at Girtford. 

North of the Ouse the water-parting is the high 
ground lying between Thurleigh and Bolnhurst on the 
south, and Keysoe and Souldrop on the north. The 
brooks that run north join the Kim and eventually 
reach the Ouse near Hale Bridge, north of Eaton Socon ; 
to the south and east others run direct into the Ouse. 

The sand range from Southill to Millbrook parts 
the Flitt and its affluents on the south from the brooks 
that flow directly into the Ouse on the north, but 
supplies little water on either side. The brooks to the. 
north drain little more than the surface clay. West of 
Millbrook the elevated line of the sand continues in a 
curve of clay hills from Ridgmont to Brogborough 
west and then north to Cranfleld. From the high ground 
south-west of Staofsden two streams come down from 



WATERSHEDS RIVERS 



17 



Astwood and North Crawley (both in Bucks), and uniting 
just beyond Stagsden, have cut a deep bed of nearly a 
mile in width into the oolite from their junction to the 
Ouse at Bromham. From the line between Souldrop 
and Odell Wood, which parts the Ouse from the Nene, a 
brook runs into the Ouse at Sharnbrook. This stream 
too, though its course is short, has cut both wide and 




The Ouse at Bedford 



deep through the cornbrash into the lower oolite. The 
oolite is full of fissures, and so forms a natural system 
of underground pipes and reservoirs by which great 
quantities of water pass unseen in a south-easterly 
direction. Bedford is supplied with water by wells 
which are extended by headings driven across the strike 
of this underground river. In the neighbourhood of the 

C. B. 2 



18 BEDFORDSHIRE 

town it maintains a level which is approximately that 
of the Ouse with which it is in connection, about ninety 
feet above mean sea-level. A glance at the map will 
show that the sand-hills of the centre supply very little 
water to the brooks and rivers. The sand, which is of 
considerable depth and extends beneath the gault at 
least as far south as Hitchin, is a great reservoir of water. 
Where it is underlain by clay, as for instance at the 
brick-pits to the north of Sandy, it throws out springs 
at its base. But the greensand range of central Bed- 
fordshire, though resting largely on Ampthill or Oxford 
clay, is to a great extent sealed up by gault or boulder 
clay that banks its slopes on south and north. The 
Biggleswade waterworks draw their water from a mass 
of greensand that lies between a clay bottom and a 
gault clay covering: the latter protects the area from 
all surface pollution, and the water pumped from it is 
that which has fallen as rain on the sand range to the 
north and west and passed through the natural filter of 
at least some few miles of sand. Many of the neigh- 
bouring villages are supplied by Biggleswade, even so 
far afield as Kempston. Leighton Buzzard also draws 
its water from the greensand, while Dunstable and 
Luton depend upon the chalk. 

There are no lakes in Bedfordshire, but in the flat 
bottom south of Ampthill where the clay partly over- 
rides the sand there are still considerable remains of 
Flitwick moor and bog. More than a hundred years ago 
efforts were made to drain it. Of late years considerable 
advance has been made, and between Greenfield and 



WATERSHEDS RIVERS 19 

Flitwick beds of vegetables and fruit bushes may be 
seen in luxuriant growth within a few yards of the 
retreating bog. Its disappearance will be the gain of the 
small cultivator and the grief of the naturalist, for it 
harbours many interesting (and perhaps some unknown) 
species of plant and animal life. 



6. Geology. 

Bedfordshire is so small a county that it might be 
expected to offer scant space for geological variety. 
But within its narrow bounds there is more than any 
one of the five surrounding counties can boast. Its 
surface displays the successive strata of the Jurassic and 
Cretaceous series with few exceptions, and the explana- 
tion of the absence of those not represented makes 
the study of its formation still more interesting and 
suggestive. 

Of the Tertiary rocks there is but little trace. If 
they were ever deposited over more than a very small 
part of the south of. the county they have been long 
since washed away and have left but negligeable remains. 
Of the Glacial period that followed there are abundant 
evidences. By ploughing and pounding, by tearing and 
crushing, by depositing huge masses of clay and stones 
upon the surface, the glaciers of the Post-tertiary period 
have set their mark on every corner of the county. 



Names ok 

SVSTEMS 



Subdivisions 



Characters of Rock. 



Recent 
Pleistocene 



Pliocene 



Miocene 



Eocene 



Cretaceous 



Jurassio 



Triassio 



Permian 



< 

0+ 



Carboniferous 



Devonian 



Silurian 



Ordovician 



Cambrian 



Pre -Cambrian 



Metal Age Deposits 
Neolithic ,, 

Palaeolithic „ 
Glacial „ 

Cromer Series 
Weybourne Crag 
Chillesford and Norwich Crags 
Red and Walton Crags 
Coralline Crag 

Absent from Britain 

Fluviomarine Beds of Hampshire 
Bagshot Beds 
London Clay 



Oldhaven Beds, Woolwich and Reading I 
[Groups ) 



Thanet Sands 



Chalk 

Upper Greensand and Gault 

Lower Greensand 

Weald Clay 

Hastings Sands 

Purbeck Beds 

Portland Beds 

Kimmeridge Clay 

Corallian Beds 

Oxford Clay and Kellaways Rock 

Corn brash 

Forest Marble 

Great Oolite with Stonesfield Slate I 

Inferior Oolite I 

Lias — Upper, Middle, and Lower / 

Rhaetic \ 

Keuper Marls 

Keuper Sandstone 

Upper Bunter Sandstone [ 

Bunter Pebble Beds 

Lower Bunter Sandstone / 

Magnesian Limestone and Sandstone ) 
Marl Slate _ I 

Lower Permian Sandstone J 

Coal Measures \ 

Millstone Grit 

Mountain Limestone 

Basal Carboniferous Rocks J 

Upper | Devonian and old Red Sand- ) 

Lower J stone I 

Ludlow Beds ) 

Wenlock Beds [ 

Llandovery Beds / 

Caradoc Beds ) 

Llandeilo Beds f 

Arenig Beds ' 

Tremadoc Slates 

Lingula Flags 

Menevian Beds 

Harlech Grits and Llanberis Slates 



No definite classification yet made 



Superficial Deposits 



Sands chiefly 



Clays and Sands chiefly 



Chalk at top 
Sandstones, Mud and 
Clays below 



Shales, Sandstones and 
Oolitic Limestones 



Red Sandstones and 
Marls, Gypsum and Sal 



Red Sandstones and 
Magnesian Limestone 

Sandstones, Shales and 
Coals at top 
Sandstones in middle 
Limestone and Shales be 

Red Sandstones, 
Shales, Slates and Lime- 
stones 

Sandstones, Shales and 
Thin Limestones 

Shales, Slates, 
Sandstones and 
Thin Limestones 

Slates and 
Sandstones 



Sandstones, 
Slates and 
Volcanic Rocks 



GEOLOGY 21 

In the far distant ages of the Triassic period, long 
before Great Britain had assumed an island shape, 
there stretched over it a great inland salt-lake as far as 
the coast of Normandy. It was narrowest at its central 
part, between Bedfordshire and the Mendip hills, and, 
while the Welsh mountains rose on its north-western 
shores, its south-eastern coast trended from the Wash 
south-westwards, leaving Bedfordshire and the land 
east, west, and south of it as a dry highland of rocks. 
The soil produced ferns and cycads, equisetums — huge 
plants like our modern horsetails — and conifers. Croco- 
diles inhabited the waters, and, amongst Dinosaurs and 
other lizard-like monsters, one kind at least of marsupial 
had already made its appearance. The climate was 
warm and dry, there was little rain, and rock-salt 
accumulated beneath the water of the shrinking lake. 
Streams were however pouring the waste of surrounding 
hills into the lake, and the muddy scour of the coal 
measures from the west and north was laid down in beds 
of that black shaly Lias that crosses England from 
Gloucestershire to Yorkshire, and is so familiar to those 
who have visited Whitby. This Lias bed encroached 
upon the sinking north-west corner of our area, and, 
though it nowhere crops out upon the surface, underlies 
the upper rocks about Felmersham and Sharnbrook, 
and as far east as Bedford. 

As time went on, this lake, by the sinking of inter- 
vening land, became connected with a southern ocean. 
The inflowing waters altered the conditions of life: 
greater evaporation brought more rain, and consequently 



22 BEDFORDSHIRE 

a more abundant vegetable and animal life. The inland 
lake had now become an arm of the sea, which covered 
the north-western corner of the land corresponding to 
our county; its warmer waters bore other kinds of living 
creatures, and sand and limestone were deposited about 
its shores in beds that no longer took their colour from 
the waste of coal-fields, while in water of convenient 
depth coral reefs were built up. The coast meanwhile 
receded slowly to the south-east as the land sank. The 
"Northampton sands" lie beneath Wymington, and a 
succession of sand and sandy clay and limestone known as 
the Upper Estuarine Series underlies Bedford and the 
neighbourhood at a depth of seventy feet, and comes 
to the surface near Harrold and Sharnbrook. Much of 
northern and north-western Bedfordshire was now 
beneath the water. As the shore continued to recede and 
the sea to advance, successive beds of clay, marl, and 
limestone were deposited, the Oolite of to-day, which lies 
beneath the district that is roughly contained between 
Poddington, Stagsden, and Bedford; and the Ouse has 
worn its channel deeply into it between Turvey and 
Bedford. How much further south or east it extends 
is quite uncertain, as it is deeply buried by overlying 
deposits. Above it was formed a shallow layer of the 
greyish rubbly limestone known as Cornbrash, which 
is exposed at intervals along the Ouse valley above 
Bedford and in the two old brooks that join it at Brom- 
ham and Sharnbrook, and may also be seen in the large 
Biddenham gravel-pit. Its fossils show that it was 
formed at some distance from land, and it is probable 



GEOLOGY 



23 



that when it was deposited most part, or all, of Bedford 
was already submerged. Above it, but separated by a 
layer of clay, lies a limy sand called Kellaways Rock, 
whose fossils tell us that it was laid down in shallowish 
water, and it probably marks an alternative period of 
rise in the sinking sea floor. It is a thin bed, containing 




Doggers " in Kellaways Rock 



iron pyrites and concretions of sandstone called "dog- 
gers," well seen in the Oakley railway cutting before the 
banks were overgrown. The Cornbrash and Kellaways 
Rock are overlain by a thick bed of Oxford clay, forming 
strata of dark blue-grey and brownish clays alternating 
with thick beds of limestone. As some five hundred 



24 BEDFORDSHIRE 

feet of it were deposited, the sea must have been of 
considerable depth, and it undoubtedly extended far 
beyond Bedfordshire on every side. 

After ages of gradual sinking, during which this 500 
feet of Oxford clay was deposited, the land began to 
rise again, and above the Oxford clay a stratum known 
as the Corallian formed, but there is no trace of coral- 
reefs having existed within our area and our representa- 
tive of the Corallian is a clay that differs but little from 
the Oxford clay beneath it, and is known as Ampthill 
clay, because it is well exposed in the railway cutting 
near Ampthill station. Above it a bed of Kimmeridge 
clay once lay over part at least of the county, but was 
stripped from its surface, and the only evidence of its 
presence that we now possess consists in those water- 
worn concretions, the red coprolites of the Greensand, 
the nucleus of which is often a fossil from the Kimmeridge 
clay. Much of the Ampthill clay must have been also 
denuded, for at Sandy, on the axis of the highest elevation, 
the Greensand rests directly upon Oxford clay. And 
there is little doubt that some of the upper levels of the 
Oxford clay were washed away as well. 

The Greensand was now deposited. Much of Bed- 
fordshire had become dry land between two seas, and 
now a time came when their waters began to over- 
whelm the intervening isthmus. The two advancing 
gulfs eventually met, and, as the channel broadened, 
the sea laid down along it's coast a belt of coarse sands — 
the Greensand — which began at no great distance to 
the north-west, and gradually extended south-east as 



GEOLOGY 



25 



far as the neighbourhood of Hitchin. As the land sank, 
the sea widened and deepened, and the deposits, now 
farther from the shore and of finer materials, formed 
the bed of Gault which still overlies the Greensand in 
South Bedfordshire, and^once extended to the north over 
that which is now exposed. It took its dark-bluish tint 




Sand-pit at Cainhoe near Clophill, showing the 
infiltration of Peroxide of Iron in bands 



from the waste of Oxford clay. Again the character 
of the sediment gradually changed, and the Gault was 
overlaid with beds of chalky marl, in which the waste 
of the land brought down by rivers mingled with a 
gradually preponderating volume of waste from the 
living organisms that inhabited the water, in its turn 
succeeded by the Lower Chalk, which rests upon a thin 



26 BEDFORDSHIRE 

band of hard brownish stone with phosphatic nodules at 
its base, quarried for a very long period at Totternhoe, 
and known as "Totternhoe Stone." Above a hard 
stratum, the Melburne Rock, is the Middle Chalk, which 
has also a band of hard chalk above it, and the presence 
of these strata of harder rock which occur at intervals 
is due to changes brought about periodically by varieties 
of temperature, due either to a widespread alteration of 
seasons, or more probably to the influence of colder 
currents that persisted for a time and then altered their 
course. Sufficient variation in the temperature of the 
water would affect for a time the character of the 
organisms living in it and of the debris precipitated to 
the bottom. The Upper Chalk, which is 800 feet thick 
at Kensworth, was once much thicker, and lay many 
fathoms beneath the ocean which stretched from the 
borders of the Welsh mountains and over much of what 
is now the continent of Europe. 

For a vast period of time, a period that we cannot at 
present calculate, Bedfordshire was buried beneath this 
ocean, and with it all relics of its earlier types of animals 
and vegetation. The waters gradually subsided, and 
the land rose again. Races of animals and plants were 
developed and transformed : countless kinds, many of 
which, doubtless, have left no record that we have yet 
discovered, took shape and flourished and passed away, 
until at last the fauna and flora of our globe became 
such or nearly such as we know it now. But we 
cannot trace the history of the land through these long 
ages. The depression that again plunged the London 



GEOLOGY 27 

Basin beneath the waters and added fresh deposits to 
its surface has left some trace in isolated patches of 
Tertiary clay at Caddington and Kensworth, but we 
do not know how much of the area of the county was 
submerged. It is clear that during this long space of 
time the agencies of water, frost, and wind, must have 
remodelled the surface of the land. Great rivers tore up 
and washed away the Chalk and much of the Greensand 
and Gault, and left the denuded clay plain of Bedford 
bordered by the escarpment of this Greensand, and the 
Gault by the Chalk escarpment, both of which stood 
probably but little in advance of their present positions. 
The general configuration of the land as it then was 
would of course more closely resemble its present form 
if the Boulder Clay could be removed from the surface. 
The next great change was brought about by a 
revolution in climate. The temperature gradually fell, 
and arctic conditions extended over much of Europe. 
Huge glaciers crept down from the north and north- 
east, from North Wales, from either side of the Pennine 
range, and from the neighbourhood of Norway. From 
the absence of hard rocky soil it is not as easy to trace 
the exact course of the ice here as in some districts of 
the north, but one glacier appears to have made its way 
by Leicester and Buckingham towards Aylesbury, while 
another entered Bedfordshire from Lincolnshire by the 
Cambridgeshire border, and passed over the eastern and 
southern parts of the county, detached lobes of it 
probably penetrating the several spaces between the 
masses of higher land. These pushed before and beneath 



28 BEDFORDSHIRE 

them, or carried upon their surfaces, the wreckage of 
the havoc they had caused elsewhere. Much of this they 
deposited in their passage, some of it was laid down in 
stratified beds by the water that left the glaciers with 
the recurrence of the warmer seasons; and everywhere 
masses would be left in chaotic deposit when the glaciers 
finally melted. From one end of the county to the other 
was spread an almost continuous sheet of chalk and clay 
and stones — the Drift. Chalk forms the most conspicuous 
ingredient of the Drift clay and was in part torn from our 
own chalk hills, in part borne from the northern Midlands 
and the Lincolnshire wolds. The melting ice released a 
volume of water that must have washed out much of 
the chalk, and left beds of boulders and gravel ; and the 
gravels were in turn driven along, re-arranged, and 
deposited by the rivers in and along their beds, as the 
inclination of the land led the escaping water along its 
path of least resistance. Before long a regular drainage 
system took shape. The Ouse still flows in a narrow 
channel that winds over the floor of the bed once occupied 
by a mightier stream, which made itself a path two 
miles in width through the Boulder Clay. In course of 
time its narrowing channel deepened, as it cut so deeply 
through the underlying strata that the dwindling stream 
now runs from Turvey to Bedford upon the oolite rock 
at a height of not much more than seventy feet above 
sea-level. The Ivel followed a course that an earlier 
stream had excavated, a deep channel filled with Boulder 
Clay, through the upper part of which the modern 
river runs. 



NATURAL HISTORY 29 



7. Natural History. 

The British Isles are, in geological language, of the 
type known as Recent Continental Islands. They formed 
at one time part of the large continental mass of land 
lying to the south-east, and have not been separated 
from it for any very great length of time, geologically 
speaking. The coast-line in many parts of the world — 
ours among the number — is constantly altering; in 
some places, as on the Norfolk coast, being ceaselessly 
eaten away by the sea; in others extending its limits 
to a not less remarkable degree. Between England and 
the continent the sea is very shallow, and even in the 
North Sea, if St Paul's Cathedral could be placed in it, 
there is no spot where its summit would not be above 
the surface of the water. But a little west of Ireland 
we soon come on to very deep soundings, which mark 
the original limit of the continent. To geologists these 
submarine evidences of a former land connection are 
known as the Continental Shelf. 

Originally, no doubt, the fauna and flora of our land 
were the same as those of the continent of which it 
formed part. But at one period the islands were almost 
entirely submerged, and their animal and vegetable life 
being thus destroyed they would have to be re-stocked 
from the continent when the land again rose, the influx 
of course coming from the east and south. Later, 
separation once more occurred, before all the con- 
tinental species had had time to establish themselves on 



30 BEDFORDSHIRE 

our land. We should thus expect to find that the parts 
in the neighbourhood of the continent were richer in 
species and those farthest off poorer, and this proves 
to be the case both with plants ' and animals. While 
Britain has fewer species than France or Belgium, 
Ireland has still less than Britain. 

Apart from this factor the richness or poverty of a 
district is dependent primarily upon geological and 
physical conditions. Certain soils are favourable for 
the growth of certain trees or plants, which afford the 
food of special insects or animals, in their turn the prey 
of other creatures. The more varied, therefore, the 
geological conditions of a county, the richer probably 
will be its fauna and flora, and if it can show mountain 
and plain, moorland and river valley, forest and fen, 
sea-coast and lake, it will afford the naturalist a much 
longer list of species than if more restricted in its physical 
features. 

Let us now turn to Bedfordshire and see what it 
has to offer. To begin with, it is a small county — one 
of the very smallest, Hunts, Middlesex, and Rutland 
alone being of lesser area. It is an inland county, has 
few marshes, no fen-land, no lakes worth mentioning, 
and but little limestone. From early times it has been 
highly cultivated and much drained, and this has no 
doubt helped to kill out many of the native species. 
The highest point is only about 800 feet, and though the 
northern part of the county is hilly it is nowhere much 
above 300 feet. 

These facts, then, prepare us for a certain poverty in 



NATURAL HISTORY 31 

vegetable and animal life, and though this is perhaps 
partly counterbalanced by the county being situated on 
the line of migration of birds and by the existence, in 
the central and less cultivated part, of a number of 




Nest ot Tufted Duck 



parks, in which many animals and plants are protected, 
whether accidentally or purposely, this is, in fact, 
what we find; though it is possible that this poverty 
may to a certain extent be apparent rather than actual, 



32 BEDFORDSHIRE 

due to the small attention that has been given to the 
county by naturalists. 

As already stated, cultivation and drainage have 
doubtless much lessened the flora. Over a great part 
of the parishes of Ampthill, Maulden, Westoning, and 
Flitwick, spread, not very long ago, a waste of moor and 
bog, the disappearance of which was largely due to the 
more thorough and careful agriculture which began to 
prevail towards the end of the eighteenth century. But 
to this day the remains, or even the dry sites of these, 
afford good hunting-grounds to the botanist; such 
places, for instance, as Flitwick, Priestley bog, Westoning 
moor, Sutton fen, Gravenhurst moor, and the marshy 
lands at Potton, Ampthill, Stevington, Cainhoe, and 
Clophill. Besides the less common sedges and water- 
plants, they still show the grass of Parnassus, the 
sundews (Drosera), water violet (Hottonia palustris), bog- 
asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum), buckbean (Menyanthes 
trifoliata), great spear-wort (Ranunculus lingua), and 
marsh orchid (0. latifolia). The arrowgrass (Triglochin 
palustre) still grows on the site of the vanished Graven- 
hurst moor, and the sedge (Carex pulicaris) occurs with 
grass of Parnassus on what is now the dry chalk of 
Markham hills. So, too, the sedge on the lower slopes 
of Cleat Hill tells us that the scanty brook below must 
have been a fuller stream at the time of Domesday 
Book. The ditches yield bladderwort (Utricularia) and 
the pretty willow-weed, and in one pond at least the 
beautiful Villarsia, somewhat of a rarity, has been 
found. 



NATURAL HISTORY 33 

Many of the older woods show plants of interest — the 
wild teasel {Dipsacus sylvestris), herb-paris, Solomon's 
seal, meadow saffron, and fritillary. Putnoe Wood 
contains the water-avens {Geum rivale) and the lily of 
the valley is to be found in more than one locality. 

But perhaps the most characteristic botanical feature 
of Bedfordshire is the prolific plant life of the Ouse and the 
Ivel. The placid streams are starred for miles in summer 
with the white and yellow water lilies, and their banks 
lined by thick beds of sedge and feathery reeds. Here 
we see the spikes of the sweet-flag {Acorus calamus) and 
the rosy umbels of the flowering rush {Juncus floridus) 
interspersed with fields of sky-blue forget-me-not, while 
wide stretches of the stream are crimson with persicaria. 
The beautiful blue flowers of the meadow crane's-bill 
are too seldom seen, but the willow-herb and yellow 
flag are abundant. These are only some of the many 
plants which combine to form the characteristic river- 
scenery of our county. 

The clay, chalk, and Greensand soils exhibit the 
plants specially affecting them. On the former, and 
in the northern half of the county, the hemlock, teasel, 
and nightshade are abundant, and here too we find the 
vervain {Verbena officinalis), the starwort {Aster tri- 
polium), hound's tongue {Cynoglossum officinale), the 
crested cow-wheat {Melampyrum cristatum), and the 
frog-bit {Hydrocharis morsus-ranae). Roses, too, flourish 
better here than on the higher soils. Among plants that 
are lovers of the chalk are the campanulas — the hair- 
bell, C. rotundifolia, and C. glomerata — the potentillas and 

C. B. 3 



34 BEDFORDSHIRE 

scabious, hawkweeds (Hieracium), eyebright (Euphrasia), 
yellow- wort (Cblora perfoliata), the carline and musk 
thistles (Carlina vulgaris and Carduus nutans), the 
gentian (G. amarella), and many of the orchids, besides 
the rock-rose and the pasque-flower {Anemone Pulsatilla). 
On the Greensand are the St John's-wort, the bird's-foot 
(Ornithopus perpusillus), bilberry, ling, foxglove, black 
alder (Rhamnus Frangula), tansy, wormwood, yellow 
toad-flax, and the lily of the valley. Among its char- 
acteristic weeds are the corn marigold, here known as 
"goolds " ; the chamomile (Pyrethrum parthenium), called 
"mayweed"; the spurrey (Spergula arvensis), called 
"beggarweed" ; the white goosefoot(Cbenopodium album), 
called "father"; and the rest-harrow (Ononis arvensis) 
which generally goes by the name of "cammock." 

There are fine oaks on the northern clay slope of 
Ampthill Park, some of which were doubtless too old 
for shipbuilding in Armada days. Many are still in full 
vigour, others mere barkless wrecks. The elm flourishes, 
and fine avenues of them are to be seen at Wrest Park. 
Luton Hoo, on the chalk of the south, is famous for its 
beeches, and from Caddington to Houghton Park on the 
northern edge of the sand the holly is commonly seen. 
Tall rows of the Lombardy poplar are conspicuous 
near Shefford, at Gravenhurst, Bromham, and elsewhere ; 
and there is a famous cedar avenue at Southill Park. 
The box, occurring on Dunstable Downs, is believed to 
be a native of the county. 

Bedfordshire cannot boast of a salmon river, though 
one or two of these fish have been recorded as casual 



NATURAL HISTORY 35 

visitors caught in eel-traps. Trout have been intro- 
duced both into the Ivel and the Ouse, but in the latter 
river they have been largely exterminated by pike, and 
though they did well in the Ivel it was found that they 
would not rise to the artificial fly. Barbel have been 
established in the Ouse and have done well, and the 
river is famed as one of the best for bream in England. 

The county is not favourable either to reptilian or 
batrachian life, and hence the fauna of these is poor. 
The natterjack toad, though found just over the border 
in Cambridgeshire and Herts, is not known to occur, 
nor has the sand lizard been recorded, though found in 
Huntingdonshire. The great water newt and the com- 
mon newt are found, but not the palmated newt. The 
slow-worm or blind-worm is common, as is the equally 
harmless grass snake, especially in the Ouse meadows, 
and the adder frequents the bracken and woods of the 
Greensand and is tolerably abundant on the boggy 
ground near Westoning. The green tree-frog has estab- 
lished itself in Woburn Park as an escape, and another 
small exotic frog has acclimatised itself in the gardens 
of Bedford, where it clicks monotonously through the 
summer nights. 

The draining of the fens on the north and the higher 
farming and enclosures of the last century have not 
been without their effect on the bird life of the county. 
A hundred years ago the buzzard, hen-harrier, raven, 
and kite, nested with us, but now even sparrow-hawks, 
crows, and magpies are lessened in numbers, and the 
birds just mentioned are extinct as breeding species, 

3—2 



36 BEDFORDSHIRE 

and the hobby is a great rarity. Still, the ornithology 
of Bedfordshire has not been exhaustively studied, and 




Young of Little Owl (Athene noctua) 

it is possible that wider knowledge may lessen some of 
the rarities. On the chalk-hill range the Norfolk plover 



NATURAL HISTORY 37 

or stone curlew was nesting in the 'eighties, but un- 
fortunately no longer does so, though snipe still breed 
with us, and the redshank is increasing as a breeding 
species. There are no heronries in the county, though 
herons are common. 

If Bedfordshire has thus in some respects a limited 
avifauna, it is strong in others, for it lies on an important 
line of migration and consequently is visited by great 
numbers of birds of passage, some of them, such as the 
black redstart, the great grey shrike, and the waxwing, 
being rare. The crossbill is a regular winter visitant, 
and recently a certain number have nested. The tufted 
duck, formerly only a winter visitor, is now a well- 
established breeding species. The little owl {Athene 
noctua), introduced about 30 years ago into North- 
amptonshire, has spread widely and numerously over 
the county. The goldfinch and the starling appear to 
be increasing in numbers, especially the latter. The 
nightingale is fairly abundant. 

The mammals call for no particular remark. The 
marten, polecat, and black rat have all disappeared and 
the badger is somewhat of a rarity. The otter, on the 
other hand, is very common on the Ouse and Ivel. 
The introduced grey squirrel has wholly supplanted our 
native species within the last few years at Woburn, and 
at least as far north as Tingrith and Steppingley. 



38 BEDFORDSHIRE 



8. Climate. 

The climate of any country or district is dependent 
upon many factors, such as the latitude, the altitude, 
the direction and strength of the winds, the rainfall, the 
character of the soil, the nearness of the district to the 
sea, and all these factors are mutually interacting and 
interdependent. 

Latitude has, naturally, a very great influence upon 
temperature, but there are many things which counteract 
and mitigate its effects, notably the proximity of the 
great oceans. These have a great effect in equalising 
temperature, and preventing extremes either of heat or 
cold. The lowest known temperatures occur in north- 
eastern Siberia, far from the Pole and in the middle of a 
great continent, in a latitude corresponding to not more 
than two or three hundred miles north of the Shetland 
Islands, where, owing to the warm ocean currents, the 
winters are often extremely mild. The greatest annual 
temperature range is found in the centres of continents 
and far from sea, and the most equable in sea-surrounded 
islands. Thus we have what are technically known as 
"continental" and "insular" climates; of which latter 
Great Britain is an excellent example, though it is 
abnormally mild owing to the prevalence of south-west 
winds which cause a movement of the warm surface 
waters of the Atlantic towards our shores. 

The prevalent Atlantic winds are the main factors of 
our rainfall. Passing over the heated southern waters 



^ 




r 



I 



j 



Relief Map of Bedfordshire 
{From the raised map by Mr F. Hawkins ricny) 



40 BEDFORDSHIRE 

they become charged with moisture. The amount of 
such vapour that the atmosphere will carry depends 
upon temperature, and a lowering of the temperature 
causes proportionate condensation of the vapour carried, 
and its deposit as rain, snow, or hail. Temperature 
falls in proportion to the height of the elevation, and 
our south-westerly winds meeting with elevated land- 
tracts directly they reach our shores — the moorland of 
Devon and Cornwall, the Welsh mountains, or the fells 
of Cumberland and Westmorland — blow up the mountain 
slopes, become cooled, and at once deposit their vapour 
as rain. To how great an extent this occurs is well 
seen on referring to the accompanying map of the 
annual rainfall of England, where it will at once be 
noticed that the heaviest fall is in the west, and that it 
decreases with remarkable regularity until the least 
fall is reached on our eastern shores. 

But Britain is surrounded with water, and it may 
be asked why winds other than those from the west and 
south should not contribute more to our rainfall. The 
reason is simple. The sea lying to the east of us is 
very small in area and shallow; while that to the north, 
though more extensive, is cold. The southerly and 
westerly winds therefore, sweeping over a vast extent 
of warm sea, can both receive and carry more vapour 
than those of the north and east, and in addition are, 
as already stated, more prevalent. 

The above causes, then, are those mainly concerned 
in influencing the weather, but there are other and more 
local factors which often affect greatly the climate of a 




6E0RGE PMIUPt SON L" 



{The figures give the approximate annual rain/all in inches.) 



42 BEDFORDSHIRE 

place, such for example as configuration, position, and 
soil. The shelter of a range of hills, a southern aspect, 
a sandy soil, will thus produce conditions which may 
differ greatly from those of a place — perhaps at no great 
distance — situated on a wind-swept northern slope with 
a cold clay soil. 

Bedfordshire would be a very much drier county 
than it is if it depended for its rainfall upon the south- 
west winds. Irregular disturbances of the atmosphere, 
accompanied by electrical phenomena, are characteristic 
of the drier eastern counties, and occur chiefly between 
July and October. To these and the violent precipi- 
tation accompanying them we are indebted for a 
considerable part of our rainfall. 

The average yearly rainfall for the whole county, 
calculated from the reports of a number of stations over 
a period of about thirty years, is approximately 24J 
inches; the highest average fall being 33-22 in. in 1903, 
and the lowest 17-83 in. in 1870. The Kensworth rain- 
gauge, standing at the highest point (630 ft.) of those 
that furnish records, registered 42-11 in. in 1903 — nearly 
11 inches above any other year of the decade 1900-10. 
There are many places in the county from which records 
are sent to the British Rainfall Organisation in Camden 
Square; but it is to be regretted that from large areas, 
especially in the north, no records are received. 



POPULATION RACE AFFINITIES ETC. 43 



9. Population, Race Affinities, Type, 
Dialect, etc. 

Bedfordshire has an area of 302,942 acres or about 
473 square miles, and is the smallest county in England 
with the exception of Huntingdonshire, Middlesex, and 
Rutland. Its population in 191 1 was 194,588. If we 
compare it with its immediate neighbours, it is nearly 
half as big again as Hunts and has more than three 
times the population; it has three-quarters the area of 
Hertfordshire, but less than three-quarters of its popula- 
tion; it has somewhat less than three-fifths the area of 
Bucks, but is only about one-eighth behind in its popula- 
tion; though not very much more than half as big as 
Cambridgeshire it has the same population within a 
fourteenth; and while less than half the size of North- 
amptonshire it has considerably more than half the 
population of that county. In other words Huntingdon- 
shire has about 150 inhabitants for every square mile, 
Cambridgeshire 2 1 5, Buckinghamshire 262, Northampton- 
shire 336, Bedfordshire 364, Hertfordshire 409. 

The history of the county makes it pretty certain 
that the original stock of its English inhabitants was 
Anglian in the north and east, and Saxon in the south- 
west. A general impression of this type suggests medium 
height, low tone in colour both of flesh and hair, and 
length and ruggedness of feature. Red or very dark 



44 BEDFORDSHIRE 

hair, high-coloured cheeks, chubbiness, and round faces, 
seem comparatively uncommon. In accounts of the 
introduction of lace-making and straw-plaiting it has 
been asserted that Lorrainers settled at Luton and 
Huguenots at Cranfield, but as such assertions have 
been invariably made without production of any evidence 
it would be unsafe to build upon them. Undoubtedly 
a considerable fraction of the present population has 
immigrated from elsewhere; and it is probable that only 
a very small proportion of the present inhabitants of 
Bedford or Luton are descendants of Bedfordshire 
families. There has also been an influx from outside 
into Sandy and Kempston, and probably into the other 
more populated parts of the shire. 

The testimony of language presents similar difficulties. 
The spread of uniform education, ease of communication, 
and the general use of reading, have destroyed local 
peculiarities and "standardised" the matter and manner 
of speech. The masters and mistresses of the village 
schools are seldom natives of the county, and have 
probably lost when they come here most of the tincture 
of their own country-sides. 

In the Introduction to his English Dialect Dictionary 
Dr Wright classes Bedfordshire in the group of counties 
that extend from Rutland and Northamptonshire 
between the Thames and Wash to the coasts of East 
Anglia and Essex. This forms his "Third Division," and 
he subdivides it into five groups, the second of which he 
calls "Middle Eastern." This contains Mid-Northamp- 
tonshire, Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and most of 



POPULATION RACE AFFINITIES ETC. 45 

Hertfordshire and Essex. From the linguistic point of 
view it is an interesting part of England, as it comes 
well within the area that has given English its modern 
form. As with other matters of compromise, two bodies 
of men uniting and speaking closely-allied dialects with 
marked differences are likely to suppress the differences 
and make the most of their common stock. It was upon 
this South Mercian and Anglian frontier that Anglian 
met Saxon, and three hundred years later the common 
dialect that this meeting had evolved was again affected 
by the presence of Danes speaking a kindred variety of 
the same group of languages. It was here then that all 
the more special and cumbrous prefixes and terminations 
were earliest discarded, that contraction took place, 
and that the phrase was moulded after an easier and 
simpler fashion. A circle of "twenty miles radius from 
the centre of Rutland is the cradle of the new English 
we now speak," says Kington Oliphant, and he adds 
"the land enclosed with a line drawn from the Humber 
through Doncaster, Derby, Ashby, Rugby, Northampton, 
Bedford, and Colchester, helped mightily in forming the 
new literature." A hundred years ago Mr Batchelor, 
a Lidlington farmer of sense and literary inclination, 
wrote an essay on the dialect of Bedfordshire, but few 
of the phrases he quotes do more than illustrate pro- 
nunciation. He points out that the greatest peculiarity 
in this respect is the complete absence of the sound ou 
as in house. It is represented by ew 9 the e being 
pronounced as in ten or bent. This is still markedly 
the case. 



46 BEDFORDSHIRE 

Batchelor left some record of Bedfordshire vocabulary 
in which the following words are noteworthy: — 

Hurlock (kerlock)=hard seams of chalk. (The ploughman 
is careful not to plough enough on the chalk hills to disturb 
the noxious hurlock) ; Henmould = thin-stapled crumbling clays; 
Clung = tough and sticky (applied to clay) ; Li very — sad, heavy, 
and friable (clay); to lodge = be laid by rain (of crops); to 
gather = tiller = sprout out at base of stalk or root; Kid = wad = 
bean-pod; Bun = bean stubble; Kosh = pod; Maume cart — dung 
cart. 

The following are, or were, mainly in use north of 
the Ouse: — 

Seblip = sower's scuttle or basket for grain; Gotch = pitcher ; 
Dol = small sheaf to mark tithe-shock; Trap = plank bridge; 
Whittawe = worker in white leather ; Kimnel = kiver = flat wooden 
bowl for setting milk ; Gudgel = hole or pool of muck or stagnant 
water ; Fow — scour or cleanse a ditch or pond ; to binge = soak (a 
tub, etc.) in water; Quockend = choked ; Garld = white spotted 
with red; Rafty = fusty, rusty (of bacon, etc.); Beeld = hovel ; 
Gage = horse harness; to o'erwemble = overturn ; Yelm = parcel 
of straw laid ready for thatcher ; Yelmer = one who tends yelms ; 
Tasker= thresher ; Tranter-corn factor; Badger — licensed corn 
factor ; Cottered = embarrassed ; Avern = squalid, slatternly ; 
Unked = strange, uncouth; Frem = vigorous, in good condition; 
Brokled = fragile, easily broken; Gain = apt, handy; Ungain = 
inapt, unhandy. 

The following are in present use: — 

Pightle — a close of ground varying from about a rood to a 
few acres; Twitchel = a narrow passage (e.g. near Shillington 
Church) ; Pendle = the upper layers of limestone, in which it lies 
in broken lumps. 



AGRICULTURE 47 

10. Agriculture. 

According to the statistics of the Board of Agriculture 
crops and grass cover some five-sixths of the area of 
the county, in the proportion of three to two. Grass 
shows a tendency to increase at the expense of the 
arable, and the same tendency may be seen in all the 
surrounding counties except Cambridgeshire, where arable 
is to grass as three to one, and still encroaches upon it. 

In addition to the arable and grass land there are 
about 13,300 acres of woods, coppices, and plantations, 
and about 1200 acres of waste and heath that afford 
some rough grazing. 

The average yield of the four chief corn crops, in 
bushels per acre, calculated upon the decade 1 898-1907, 
is : — Wheat 30-97, Barley 30-59, Oats 40-92, Beans 29-10. 
If this be compared with the average yield of England, 
Bedfordshire wheat falls short by nearly 3 pecks, barley 
by 2| bushels, oats by more than a bushel, beans by 
about three pecks. If compared with the yield of a 
county of good soil and high farming, such as Lincoln- 
shire, the wheat and barley are deficient by more than 
3 bushels, the oats by 9, and the beans by 5. As com- 
pared with Huntingdonshire, however, the yield of Bed- 
fordshire wheat is about three pecks greater than that 
of Hunts, that of barley if bushels better, and that of 
oats a bushel more, though it falls short of the Cam- 
bridgeshire yield by as much as 10 bushels. In beans 
however the yield is nearly 7 bushels above that of 
Huntingdonshire. 



48 BEDFORDSHIRE 

The chief changes that have taken place in Bed- 
fordshire farming during the past century have been 
mainly due to four causes, (i) enclosure, (2) the growth 
of scientific agriculture, (3) improvement in means of 
communication, and (4) the competition of imported 
food-stuffs. Before the middle of the eighteenth 
century only a very few Bedfordshire parishes had been 
enclosed; as late indeed as 1790 three-quarters of the 
whole number were still farmed in open fields, that is to 
say, arable fields were divided into strips of J, J, 1, or 
(rarely) up to 4 acres, each in separate ownership. 
These were termed open or common fields. An owner 
of 25 acres might have his land in 50 strips scattered 
over the parish. Meadow land also was often held in 
strips. Under the open-field system farms were made 
up of intermingled patches. After harvest the grazing 
of the land was thrown for a time into common pasture, 
with a proportionate right of use, and occupiers of farms 
and cottages had rights or customary privileges of 
grazing and collecting fuel on waste, woodland, and 
warren. This system imposed upon each farmer such 
a rotation of crops and fallow as found favour with the 
majority. It was a bar to originality, experiment, and 
improvement. But enclosure, while it removed these 
drawbacks, and undoubtedly added greatly to the food- 
supply of the nation as a whole, was carried out in Bed- 
fordshire, as in most parts of England except Lincolnshire 
and Norfolk, in such a way as to entail very serious 
disadvantages. 

Small yeoman farmers and cottagers, in compensation 



AGRICULTURE 49 

for their loss of common pasturage rights, were allotted 
parcels of ground that would not support the one or 
two cows they were accustomed to keep, but were 
attractive as additions to the farms of their wealthier 
neighbours. They were generally soon sold, and the 
money spent; milk passed out of the daily diet of agri- 
cultural labourers, and the small holder almost dis- 
appeared. Meanwhile the farmers who survived were 
in a far better position than their predecessors had been 
to take advantage of all that science could teach them. 
The main disadvantage under which they still suffered 
was the difficulty of obtaining leases, or leases free 
from inconvenient restrictions. This was however often 
mitigated in practice by the good relations existing 
between landlord and tenant. Such was certainly 
the case in Bedfordshire, under many of the larger 
landowners at least, and farms commonly remained for 
generations in the tenancy of the same families, though 
the strict bond was often but an annual one. The rapid 
increase of enclosure took place during the last ten years 
of the eighteenth century and the early years of the 
nineteenth, and thus coincided with a period in which 
much was done to establish agriculture on more scientific 
foundations. Francis, fifth Duke of Bedford, who came 
of age in 1786 and died prematurely in 1802, was as 
well known as Mr Coke of Norfolk among the pioneers 
of this movement. Experiments were carried on at 
Woburn to test different methods of ploughing, planting, 
and sowing, forms of plough and drill, breeds of sheep 
and cattle, the influence of soils and manures upon 

C. B. 4 



50 BEDFORDSHIRE 

crops, the exact consumption and cost of live stock, and 
the qualities and culture of new roots and grasses. 
The "Woburn Sheepshearing" became as famous as the 
"Holkham Clipping," and both were attended by farmers, 
not only from many parts of England, but from the 
continent and the United States. At these "Shearings" 
ploughing competitions were held, and new methods 




Ploughing on heavy land at Bletsoe 

and machines were introduced and exhibited : they were 
indeed the precursors of the Agricultural Shows and 
Meetings of to-day. Bedford was one of the first places 
in which the manufacture of agricultural implements 
was established on a large scale, and Howards' ploughs 
and binders soon won a world-wide celebrity. The 
Bedfordshire Agricultural Society was founded as early 
as 1 80 1, under the auspices of the Duke of Bedford and 



AGRICULTURE 51 

others, and it still flourishes, though it is a matter of 
regret that less than half the farmers in the county give 
it their support. 

The interest which Francis, fifth Duke of Bedford, 
had shown in agriculture was shared by his brother 
John, who succeeded him, and experiments were 
continued at Woburn by him and by his successors. 
In 1876, some forty years later than the Rothamsted 
institution was started by Sir John Lawes, the Woburn 
Experimental Farm was established in Husborne 
Crawley, near Ridgmont Station, under the directorship 
of Dr Voelcker. Under his management, and that of 
his son who succeeded him, very valuable investigations 
have been, and are still, carried out, especially in con- 
nection with the chemistry of manures and the chemical 
and mechanical action of different soils. Grain has been 
grown for thirty successive years upon equal plots of 
similar soil, with and without manure, and with natural 
and artificial manures of various kinds; and the results 
have been carefully recorded and published. Exhaustive 
experiments have been made in the rotation of crops, 
and the manurial value of oil-cake and other foods for 
cattle and sheep. Attention has been given to the loss 
which farmyard manure suffers in making, storing, and 
moving, and to methods by which its virtues may be 
preserved. By pot-culture chemical experiments have 
been carried out which supplement the Mendelian re- 
searches of the Cambridge Laboratory in quest of a wheat 
which shall combine the milling excellence of Canadian, 
and the yield of English, wheats. An experimental fruit 

4—2 



52 BEDFORDSHIRE 

farm has also been established in the neighbourhood, 
at which important experiments have been made with 
regard to methods of tree-planting, the effect of a grassed 
surface upon the yield and quality of fruit-trees, and the 
nature and use of washes for the extermination of para- 
sites. In 1896 the County Council established a County 
Agricultural Institute and Farm School, for which the 
Duke of Bedford supplied both the land and the building. 
A score of pupils were there taught the elements of farm 
work, ploughing, hedging and ditching, and then sent 
for a year of practical farming, after which they returned 
for a course of agricultural chemistry and geology. 
An unforeseen occurrence brought this promising scheme 
to an end, but its resuscitation would undoubtedly 
prove of benefit not merely to the county but to the 
country. 



11. Market Gardening. 

It is not easy to draw the line very exactly in Bed- 
fordshire between agricultural and market-gardening 
occupation. Many vegetables which were considered 
to belong exclusively to garden culture at the beginning 
of the nineteenth century are now cultivated over an 
extent of hundreds of acres, and garden produce is 
grown on small allotments, and on some of the fields of 
large agricultural holdings. From the neighbourhood 
of Eaton Socon in the north-east to Henlow in the 
south, and extending eastward to Potton and westward 



MARKET GARDENING 53 

from the Ivel to Wellington, through Southill, Clophill, 
Maulden, Flitwick, and Greenfield, as far as Toddington, 
and by Clifton and Shefford to Upper Stondon, market- 
gardening steadily increases in area. The two kinds of 
soil which most favour it are the deep-stapled loams of 
the valleys of the Ivel and Flitt, and those gravels 
on the banks of the Ivel and Ouse that are overlain by 
a rich alluvial deposit. In some cases natural causes 
have mingled sand and clay, and produced a soil 
chemically nutritive and of a consistence and depth 
suitable to the penetration of deep-rooting vegetables. 
In other cases the soil is at once fertile and "quick" 
enough to supply early markets. Sandy and Biggleswade 
are two of the chief centres, and they send vegetables 
by the Great Northern Railway to the manufacturing 
towns of the north of England, and to London, to the 
amount of as much as fifty or even a hundred tons a day 
in the busy seasons. As well as the large trade beyond 
the limits of the county much garden-stuff is conveyed 
by train or cart to Luton and Bedford. Potatoes, 
carrots, onions, parsnips, parsley, celery, marrows, and 
many other vegetables cover many hundreds, indeed 
some thousands, of acres. This area is constantly 
extending, and at Greenfield raspberries, asparagus, 
and other garden produce may be seen growing within 
a yard or two of the shrinking area of Flitwick bog, 
upon which they steadily encroach. Flowers, too, 
appear at intervals among the vegetables; at Broom in 
Southill, for instance, many acres are covered by a 
regular succession of flowers for the London market. 



54 BEDFORDSHIRE 

The cultivation of woad, noted in old guides as character- 
istic of Bedfordshire, has long disappeared from this 
county. 

The Bedfordshire yield of potatoes stands at 5-88 
tons to the acre on the average of the ten years ending 
in 1907, and is slightly in excess of that of England as a 
whole and above the yield of all the surrounding counties 
except Hertfordshire. The yield of 9-58 tons in 1908 
was exceptional, and is the highest quoted for any 
county in Great Britain in that year: it is only 
approached by Middlesex, Lancashire, and half-a-dozen 
Scotch counties. But this includes the Bedfordshire 
potato cultivation in all soils and under all conditions; 
there is no available return for the special soils of the 
Sandy neighbourhood. In the cultivation of carrots 
our county is only beaten in acreage by Cambridgeshire 
and Lincolnshire, owning 876 acres under that vegetable 
to the 1564 and 1393 of those counties; indeed it claims 
one-eleventh of the whole carrot acreage of Great Britain. 
In the cultivation of onions it takes the first place, as 
its 785 acres (mainly in the Biggleswade neighbourhood) 
amount to nearly a quarter of the whole onion area of 
Great Britain. Its other vegetables and flowers are 
grown upon the 3849 acres returned by the Board of 
Agriculture as under "other crops," and this area is 
only exceeded by Essex, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, 
the West Riding of Yorkshire, Middlesex, Kent, and 
Surrey. In small fruit generally its acreage and yield 
are insignificant. Few counties return so small an 
acreage of orchards— 1073 acres. The "prune damsons," 



MARKET GARDENING 55 

upon a soil that is an eastern extension of the fertile vale 
of Aylesbury, are a notable feature of Eaton Bray. The 
fruit is large and of excellent quality, and is very profit- 
able in good years. Kempston too possesses a large and 
valuable walnut orchard. But Bedfordshire does not 
take serious rank as a fruit-growing county. 

12. Industries — Lace = Making. Straw= 
plaiting. 

Lace-making, which played such an important part 
in the economic history of Bedfordshire during the 
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, almost disappeared 
from the county twenty years ago. Tt is true that the 
number of lace-makers returned in the census of 190 1 
was 1 148 out of a population of 171,707, or about one 
in 150. But it must be remembered that when that 
return was made almost all the 1148 were old or elderly 
women, and very few of them were regularly employed. 
For all practical purposes lace-making was dead in 
Bedfordshire before the end of the nineteenth century. 
At the beginning of it the growth of straw-plaiting had 
to a great extent ousted lace-making from the south- 
western part of the county, but elsewhere the great 
majority of the women and girls above the age of seven 
practised it. In the north, where the soil is poor and 
farmers were unwilling to pay for unnecessary labour in 
the winter, boys and even men are said to have taken to 
lace-making for want of other employment. The lace- 
schools were the only schools that girls attended in the 



56 BEDFORDSHIRE 

villages, on every week-day but Saturday, and it is stated 
on good authority that a girl who had learned lace-making 
for six years was, after the age of thirteen, no longer 
an expense to her family. Twenty years ago it would 
have been difficult to find a girl who was learning this 
art, and more difficult still to find a village lace-school. 

About the beginning of the present century several 
ladies of this county and of Buckinghamshire began to 
interest themselves in the restoration of the industry. 
The matter was brought before the County Council in 
1907, a small sum was voted, and classes were established 
in some twenty towns and villages. Many girls have 
been already taught, and the results are considered so 
far satisfactory that the Council has lately increased the 
grant in aid. It is too early to form any definite judg- 
ment as to whether there is any likelihood of a permanent 
and extended market for the lace, or whether girls can 
be taught on Saturdays alone to do what the girls of the 
past took every week-day but Saturday to learn. They 
worked too in the summer "from six or seven in the 
morning till sunset, and from eight or nine in the winter 
mornings till ten or eleven at night, by the light of a 
candle magnified by a glass globe, or upturned carafe, 
filled with water." 

The circumstances of the introduction of lace-making 
into Bedfordshire and the neighbouring counties, or 
even into England, are still very obscure. The story 
which connects the industry with the residence of 
Catharine of Aragon at Ampthill is unsupported by 
evidence and improbable. There is little evidence that 




O ^ 



i s; 
o 



rt 



58 BEDFORDSHIRE 

the art was practised in Europe at all before the sixteenth 
century. Fuller is probably near the mark when he 
says, in his account of lace-making in Devonshire, 
"Modern the use thereof, not exceeding the reign of 
Queen Elizabeth" ; and adds, "it saveth some thousands 
of pounds yearly, formerly sent over seas, to fetch lace 
from Flanders" — a reference consistent with the con- 
nection which students of lace have pointed out between 
that of the South Midlands and the productions of 
French and Belgian Flanders. Although he says 
nothing of "bone lace" under Beds or Northants, in his 
account of Bucks he speaks of "much thereof made about 
Owldney (Olney) in this county." Shakespeare speaks 
of "maids that weave their threads with bone," and the 
art was probably already established in Buckinghamshire 
at least, for we find that shire complaining, as early as 
1623, that the "bone-lace trade was much decayed," — 
clear evidence that the trade was not then a new one. 
Besides its familiar names of "thread lace," "bone 
lace" (from the bone bobbins) and "pillow lace/' it has 
been called "English Lille" lace. Buckinghamshire 
has generally been regarded as the principal seat of the 
industry, and it has been characteristic of the west 
rather than the east of Bedfordshire, although it spread 
at one time over much of the county. In the eighteenth 
century the neighbourhood of Olney, Stony Stratford, 
and Newport Pagnell formed the centre of the industry 
in Bucks, the neighbourhood of Towcester in Northants, 
and in Bedfordshire the district between the Bucks 
border and Woburn and Bedford. 



INDUSTRIES 59 

The early history of the straw industry in Bedford- 
shire is as obscure as that of lace-making. The accounts 
which ascribe its introduction to James I, and the 
Napiers of Luton Hoo are not supported by any direct 
evidence. But this industry differs from that of lace- 
making in one respect. The construction of a tissue 
from straws, grasses, or any other materials that could 
be easily interwoven, goes back to the dawn of civilisa- 
tion, and light hats were doubtless thus made in many 
places, but the question of interest is not the introduction 
of the art, but its specialisation and concentration in 
North Hertfordshire and South Bedfordshire. On the 
nth of August 1667 Pepys was visiting Hatfield in Hert- 
fordshire, and he tells us that "the women had pleasure 
in putting on some straw hats which are much worn in 
this country, and did become them mightily." Just 
before that date Fuller wrote in his Worthies: "When 
Hartfordshire wheat and barley carries the credit in 
London, thereby much is meant (though miscalled), 
which is immediately bought in, and brought out of, Hart- 
fordshire, but originally growing in Bedfordshire about 
Dunstable and elsewhere." Fifty years later, in Sep- 
tember, 1 724, we find Heaton " soliciting a patent to make 
hats of bent or straw which would have been extremely 
prejudicial to thousands of poor people about Hempstead 
in Herts, and Luton and Dunstable in Beds. At the 
same towns £200 have been turned on a market day in 
straw hats only, which manufacture had then thrived 
in those parts above one hundred years, and children as 
well as grown people maintained themselves by plaiting 



60 BEDFORDSHIRE 

wheat straw and working it for hats and other uses." 
A protest was backed by the influence of the Duke of 
Bridgewater, who then owned what is now Lord Brown- 
low's seat at Ashridge, and the patent was refused. 
Dalton's Traveller is not dated, but internal evidence 
shows that its Bedfordshire material was collected not 
later than 1776. It tells us that "Dunstable carries on 
two large manufactures, one of straw hats and the other 
of lace," and calls Luton "a handsome town, [with] a 
considerable manufactory of straw hats." Pennant 
writing in 1780 says nothing of the trade of Luton, 
which he describes as "a small dirty town," but tells us 
that at Dunstable "a small neat manufacture of straw 
hats and baskets and toys maintains many of the poor." 
At the beginning of the nineteenth century Lysons says, 
"The straw manufacture prevails, and has of late 
much increased, in the neighbourhood of Dunstable and 
Toddington and on the border of Hertfordshire. The 
employment is not necessarily so sedentary as lace- 
making, for the straw may be plaited by persons standing 
or walking. The earnings even of those who make the 
coarse plait are higher than those of the lace-makers, 
and the profit of making the fine plait is very consider- 
able." About the same time (1808) Batchelor tells us 
that "straw-plaiting, which was formerly confined to 
the chalky part of the county, has spread rapidly over 
the whole southern district as far as Woburn, Ampthill, 
and Shefford," and while arguing that the earnings 
quoted are exaggerated by ignoring the time occupied 
in sorting and bleaching and the expense of the straw, 



INDUSTRIES 



61 



he admits that straw-plaiting "has on the average been 
productive of more advantage to the poor than lace- 
making." An interesting extract from Arthur Young's 
diary of September, 1801, shows how highly he appre- 
ciated the advantages of the industry. "At Dunstaple: 
went to meet a person who instructs people in plaiting 
straw, and I bargained with him at 30.9. a week for a 




Straw-splitting Implement 
(a. side view, b. front view, c. in action) 

[Norfolk] girl to be instructed : a month will do : that 
is £6, and the journey there and back about £4. 10s. 
For /io I shall be able to introduce this most excellent 
fabric among our poor. The children begin at four 
years old, and by six earn 2s. or %s. a week; by seven 
is. a dav; and at eight and nine 10s. and 12s. a week. 
This will be of immense use to them." He should have 



62 BEDFORDSHIRE 

added that such wages could only last during certain 
limited periods of the year. 

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, then, 
the trade was well established. But it was restricted to 
the use of whole-straw plait, and could not compete with 
the liner work of Tuscany, which was largely imported 
in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. The 
method of dividing the straw with a knife was clumsy 
and productive of irregularity in the material. The 
invention of the straw-splitter was inevitable and gave 
a new impetus to the work, but it is uncertain when 
and how it first came into use. One story attributes 
the invention to the French prisoners at Yaxley Barracks 
near Stilton, who are said to have sold their plait in 
Luton; another to a youth at Chalfont St Peter's in 
South Bucks. The splitter that passed into common 
use consists of a stalk of iron or brass about three inches 
long and one-eighth of an inch in diameter. The lower 
end may be held in the hand or inserted upright in a 
block of wood. The upper end tapers, and is bent at a 
right angle as a sharp spur of half or three-quarters of 
an inch, around which is set a star of small blades, 
generally varying from four to seven in number, beyond 
the centre of which the sharp thin spur extends for 
about half an inch. This spur is thrust into the hollow 
of the straw, which is pushed towards the blades, and 
becomes evenly divided into a corresponding number of 
strips. The split straw is then flattened by being 
passed through a small rolling mill of two contiguous 
cylinders of box or other hard wood, and such may still 



INDUSTRIES 



63 



be seen upon the wall in many a Bedfordshire cottage, 
though few are now in use. The straws are carefully 
selected, and those of particular districts, Barton for 
instance, enjoy a special repute. They are cut between 
the last knot and the ear and are about nine inches 




Rolling-mill for flattening the Straw Plait 

long. Their selection, cutting, and distribution, was 
for a long time a considerable industry in itself. 

Towards the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth 
century fashion turned once more to the finer straw-plait 
of Italy, and the more energetic of the Bedfordshire 
hat-makers entered upon the task of competition. Con- 
spicuous among them were the Wallers of Luton, to 



64 BEDFORDSHIRE 

whom the Bedfordshire trade indirectly owes its present 
prosperity. Experiments were made with different 
bents and various methods of preparing wheat-straw, 
and an important advance took place when the plaits 
were first joined by sewing instead of knitting. Tuscan 
straw was imported, and plaited here. White chip, of 
willow wood, had already been introduced at Dunstable 
as early as 179S, and in 1820 finer chip was made, woven 
in a loom, and sewn into hats and bonnets. Some of it 
was made of black poplar ; some, of the kindred Lombardy 
poplar, was imported from France; and various kinds 
of rice straw were also employed. By the middle of 
the century many improved forms of the "whole" or 
"Dunstable" straw were made; and a variety of fancy 
forms were produced by waving, fluting, and other 
methods. Horsehair ami other materials were already 
in use. St Albans had become an important rival, and 
more expensive w r ork was imported from Italy and 
Switzerland. The turn-over at Luton, where there were 
thirty principal manufacturers, and branch factories of 
London houses employing 200-300 workmen apiece, was 
about £1,500,000 per annum. The extension of the 
Midland Railway to London in 1868 gave Luton an 
advantage of which it rapidly availed itself, and since 
that time the straw trade has dwindled into insignificance 
at Dunstable. A very few years later the first cargo of 
Chinese plait was shipped to England, and soon China 
was supplying much of the plait used. In 1890 the 
Japanese turned their attention to the Luton market, 
and at the present time the bulk of the plait comes from 



INDUSTRIES 65 

them. They have already copied and beaten the 
Italians, and threaten to rival the fancy plaits of 
Switzerland, and the braid and "crinoline" of Germany. 
The amount of straw plait now made in Bedfordshire is 
small, not one per cent, of the whole, and is chiefly for 
the American market. But the villages around Luton 
have not suffered by the change. Far more money is 
earned by the work of hat-making, trimming, and 
straw-dyeing, than was earned of old by plaiting. In 
several centres of the neighbourhood, even as far north 
as Ampthill, there are factories in which a number of 
workers are employed, and many are brought to them 
from the surrounding villages by a regular system of 
carriage. In Luton, the population of which has 
increased in a century from 3000 to 40,000, large dye- 
works have been established, and almost the whole 
trade of straw-dyeing has been secured. To the making 
of hats has been added their decoration, and thousands 
are sent out daily to many parts of the world. Nor 
is the industry now restricted to straw even in 
its widest application. Chiffon, velvet, and chenille 
have already been added; and a trade in beaver hats 
is projected, if not established. This development 
of millinery has further led to a large industry in 
the manufacture of cardboard hat-boxes and cases. 
So small a plant is requisite that by the side of the 
large firms many small establishments manage to 
thrive. Few towns, indeed, show more certain signs 
of a prosperity which is not only growing but widely 
diffused. 



INDUSTRIES 67 

At Bedford, besides Howards' old-established 
" Britannia " works, are the engineering works of 
W. H. Allen, which cover much ground west of the 
railway and have created a large new suburb ; also the 
"Pyghtle" works for garden seats and other ornamental 
woodwork; the Grafton foundries, and other factories of 
motor parts and machinery, on the Ampthill and Luton 
roads. At Luton are made pumps, boilers, marine and 
hydraulic engines, motors, ball-bearings, stoves and 
ranges, tool-making machines, aeroplanes, etc. 

The foregoing are the most noteworthy industries of 
the county but there are a few of lesser importance 
which deserve mention. Such are those supplied by the 
abundant osiers and rushes of the Ouse and Ivel. Osiers 
are cut and peeled at several places, notably at Biggles- 
wade, in the neighbourhood of Bedford, and at Paven- 
ham; and a good deal of basket-work is done at all 
three. The rush industry of Pavenham has been traced 
back to the end of the seventeenth century; and early 
in the eighteenth this place appears to have had a repute 
for rush-matting beyond the borders of the county. 
Although now only local, the industry continues to 
thrive, and in many articles the rush and osier are 
combined in basket-making. The rush used is the bulrush 
of botanists, a sedge (Scirpus lacustris), not the reed 
mace (Typba), with its club-like cylinder of bloom, to 
which the name of bulrush is popularly given. 

At Odell there is a small fell industry, at Harrold 
a manufactory of leather, and at Potton one of parch- 
ment and chamois-leather. 

5—2 



68 BEDFORDSHIRE 



13. Minerals. 

The mineral wealth of Bedfordshire is only such as 
can be obtained from limestone and chalk, clay, sand, 
and gravel. Beds of gravel are distributed widely over 
the county; they are best developed along the older 
beds of the rivers, but occur at intervals where they 
have been left by the drainage of glaciers. They 
contain fragments of rocks of many kinds, sandstones, 
limestones, chalk, and flints of local origin, mingled with 
others brought by glaciers from the far north and north- 
west. When the gravel has been dug it is screened, or 
sifted; the larger stones being used for rough building 
material, and the smaller, combined with sand, for our 
roads and paths. The pits at Biddenham and Kempston 
will serve to illustrate this industry. Many of the 
churches of the county, especially in the north and south- 
east, where no better building material was available, 
have been largely built of pebbles and small boulders. 

Sand is quarried at Sandy, Flitwick, Leighton 
Buzzard, and other places ; it is used for mortar, bricks, 
metal-moulds, filter-beds, and various other purposes. 
The white sands of Heath, near Leighton Buzzard, for 
example, are employed in glass-making in Birmingham. 
About 100,000 tons of gravel and sand are quarried 
yearly. In some places, as at Cainhoe, Sandy, and 
elsewhere, the sand exists in indurated beds, the particles 
being cemented by the infiltration of peroxide of iron. 
Such sandstone (called ironstone when it contains an 



70 BEDFORDSHIRE 

excess of iron) has been used to build many of the 
churches of the central part of the county. A few other 
buildings are constructed of it, those of Biggleswade 
waterworks for instance ; but it would be difficult to find 
any houses or cottages of sandstone, except one or two 
at Sandy. In former days local limestone was largely 
used for building in the district between Stagsden, 
Wymington, Yelden, and Bedford. The churches, and 
many of the older houses and cottages, farm-buildings, 
and walls, are constructed of it in many villages within 
that area. But it is not a sufficiently good building- 
stone to send out of the county, and few of the quarries 
are now open. It has been generally superseded by 
brick. 

Limestone is also burned for lime. Till very recently 
there were lime-kilns at Biddenham Ford End, and at 
Clapham; and Lime Street in Bedford preserves the 
memory of a lime-kiln which is marked on a seventeenth 
century plan of the town. Chalk is a very pure form of 
limestone, and the lower beds, or Chalk Marl, consist of 
calcareous clay passing gradually, as they rise, into 
purer chalk. They are quarried at Sundon, in several 
places along the face of the chalk escarpment under 
Streatley and Sharpenhoe, at Dunstable, Arlesey, and 
Totternhoe. The chalk is burned for lime, which is used 
to make mortar or cement. The harder kinds of chalk, 
such as the Totternhoe stone and Melburne rock, and the 
Hurlock, or chalk rock, have been much used of old for 
building. They are often called clunch, and have been 
employed with flint, boulders, sandstone, and pebbles in 



MINERALS 71 

the fabric of most of the churches in the south of the 
county. Totternhoe stone was for a long time in 
considerable repute, and is said to have been used not 
only for the west front of Dunstable Priory church, 
but in the interior of Westminster Abbey. The quarry 




Totternhoe Clunch Quarries 

(Norman earthworks at the summit) 

is named among the gifts which Henry I bestowed on 
Dunstable Priory at its foundation (about 1130). The 
stone is not now used for building. 

Flint appears in the walls and towers of many 
churches in the south of the county. Sometimes it is 
the chief material ; elsewhere, as at Luton and Barton, 



72 BEDFORDSHIRE 

it is used rather as an ornament to form a chequer 
with clunch or other stone. It is also used in road- 
making. 

The clays of the county provide material for brick- 
making. Wherever the clay occurs, large brickfields 
may be found near the towns, and smaller amongst the 
villages. The ruins at Someries are the oldest brick 
buildings in the county (fifteenth century), and the 
bricks may have been imported. The brick remains of 
Warden Abbey (sixteenth century) and of Houghton 
House (1615) may be of local manufacture, but are more 
likely to have come from elsewhere. The more important 
brickworks at which bricks are made to be exported 
from the county are conspicuous by their groups of tall 
chimneys, those upon the Oxford clay for instance south 
of Bedford, and the brick and tile works on the gault clay 
at Arlesey. On descending from the north into the 
gault plain, in the neighbourhood of Gravenhurst, it 
will be noticed that the more recent buildings are all of 
a compact light yellow or almost white brick. This 
light colour is due to a large percentage of lime in the 
gault clay, which passes up, indeed, into Chalk Marl. 
The variation from light buff to deep red seen in the 
bricks made elsewhere depends upon the amount of 
iron the clays contain. At Caddington and Luton are 
made the blue-grey " Luton bricks," the wet clay being 
dusted with powdered flint before baking. 

The fuller's earth of Woburn had a great reputation 
as early as the seventeenth century. It is a soapy clay 
capable of absorbing grease, and was dug till recently 



MINERALS 73 

in the neighbourhood of Woburn, but little is being 
extracted at present. 

The curious nodules or lumps of stone known as the 
coprolites of the Greensand and the gault have been dug 
in great quantities at Potton, Ampthill, Henlow, 
Stanbridge, and Billington: it is said that 30,000 tons 
were extracted between 1870 and 1880. The "red" or 
Greensand coprolites, which owe their colour to iron, 
appear to have been formed by chemical accretion about 
animal or vegetable remains, which must have lain in 
water highly charged with phosphorus. They are found 
near the base of the Greensand, and often contain fossils 
from the Kimmeridge clay, which was denuded before 
the Greensand was laid down. The "black" coprolites 
of the gault contain a larger percentage of phosphates. 
The coprolites are ground to a powder, and treated with 
sulphuric acid to release the carbonic acid gas, leaving a 
phosphate of lime. This is used as manure to restore 
phosphoric acid and lime to exhausted soils. At the 
present time the industry has ceased, but it may be 
resumed whenever a method is devised by which the 
ground coprolite can be effectively applied to the soil 
without the additional expense of treatment with 
sulphuric acid. 

14. History. 

The British of Bedfordshire at the time of the Roman 
invasion (43 a.d.) were probably of the tribe of Catuvel- 
launi, and were ruled by one of the princes of the family 



74 BEDFORDSHIRE 

of Cunobelin (Cymbeline) from his stronghold at Verulam, 
which we now call St Albans. We know nothing of the 
Roman history of this part of Britain later than those 
stirring days when its inhabitants saw the rapid march 
of Suetonius Paulinus (60 a.d.) as he hastened back from 
Anglesey in a vain attempt to save London and Col- 
chester from the fury of the revolted Iceni under 
Boadicea. Durobrivae (on the site of Dunstable) is 
the only Roman town recorded as within its borders, 
but villas and farmsteads doubtless grew up throughout 
the shire. 




Saxon Sword found in Russell Park, Bedford 

About a century and a half after the final withdrawal 
of the Romans the men of Wessex invaded the country 
of the Britons north of the Thames. In 571, says the 
Chronicle, "Cuthwulf fought the Britons at Bedanforda 
(Beada's Ford) and took four towns," including Lygean- 
byrig, which was probably Limbury near Luton 1 . This 
conquest gave the West Saxons a claim to the country 
between the Ouse as far as Bedford, and the Lea. The 
growth of Mercia barred them from taking advantage 
of their claim for the next two centuries. Mercia 
extended its way southwards to London, and its greatest 

1 Lygea is the Lea, and Lygeanbyrig may be any place on the Lea — 
Limbury, or Leagrave, or Luton (Lygeatun). 



HISTORY 75 

king, Offa, was buried at Bedford, on the north bank 
of the Ouse, in 796. The invasion of the Norsemen soon 
confined the energies of the Kings of Wessex to the 
defence of the country south of the Thames, and when 
Alfred forced Guthrum to a treaty in 885 the boundary 
line between Wessex and the Danelagh was drawn "upon 
the Thames, then upon the Lea as far as its source 
(i.e. at Limbury), then straight to Bedford, then upon 
the Ouse as far as the Watling Street"; leaving Bedford 
and the greater part of the county to the Danes, while 
the south-west remained with Wessex. Thus, from the 
earliest recorded times, Bedford and the head-waters of 
the Lea were connected. 

When Edward the Elder harried the Danish territory 
between the Ouse and Bury St Edmunds in 905 the east 
of Bedfordshire must have been laid waste. In 917 
Luton gained distinction by beating a Danish force that 
came from Northamptonshire, and in the next year, 
while Edward was busy fortifying Buckingham, the 
Jarl Thurkytel and the chief men of Bedford made 
submission to him. He proceeded to Bedford and 
remained there for a month, strengthening the town, 
and building a burh or fortification on the south side 
of the river. A fine example of his work that remains 
is the King's Ditch, which encloses the part of the town 
that he added to the south of the Ouse. In the year 
921 the Danes abandoned Huntingdon and established 
themselves at Tempsford, at the junction of the Ouse and 
Ivel. From that base they crossed the river and attacked 
Bedford, but the garrison sallied out and beat off their 



76 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



assault. It is possible, and even probable, that the 
earthworks at Tempsford, the small Danish fortified 
post with boat docks that lies on the south bank of the 
Ouse at Willington, the fortified position at Castle Mills, 




Plan of Willington Camp 

and probably too the entrenchments at Howbury, are all 
connected with this event. The occupation of Bedford 
was part of a strategic movement admirably carried out 
by Edward the Elder and his sister, the Lady of Mercia, by 



HISTORY 77 

which they gradually advanced a chain of fortresses from 
Staffordshire to Essex and drove the Danes steadily 
before them. But, even when the central and south 
Midlands were recovered, the Danes remained so thickly 
settled in Northants and the counties to the north of it, 
that the district of the Five Boroughs was accorded 
special conditions of government. This drove a wedge 
into Mercia and led to the incorporation of Bedfordshire 
and the neighbouring counties with East Anglia. 

A division of this part of England into shires took 
place in the tenth century, and Bedfordshire assumed 
approximately its present form. It was now in the 
revived, but altered, diocese of Dorchester, the see (or 
chief place) of which was removed to Lincoln in the next 
century. Ten years before the end of the tenth century 
the Danish attacks recommenced. The treacherous 
massacre of Danes on St Brice's day in 1002 led to the 
invasion of East Anglia by Sweyn in 1004. He con- 
quered that district and sent his armies north and 
south. They burnt Cambridge and made their way 
through Buckinghamshire "down the Ouse till they came 
to Bedford, and so forth as far as Tempsford, and ever 
burned as they went, and so went back to their ships 
with their booty," 

William the Conqueror's army probably laid waste 
part of Bedfordshire as he made his circuitous advance 
upon London. As no favour was shown to the landowners 
of the shire, it is probable that most of them took an 
active part in Harold's defence of the country. With 
the exception of Waltheof who married the Conqueror's 



78 BEDFORDSHIRE 

niece Judith, a few almsmen and officials who held 
small estates, and some of the monasteries, every land- 
holder was deprived but Albert the Lorrainer. After- 
wards William used the forced labour of the men of 
Bedfordshire and the neighbouring counties to build his 
castle at Ely. 

Henry I founded the town of Dunstable towards the 
end of his reign. A few years earlier he had established 
the Augustinian Priory there, and built himself a royal 
residence, Kingsbury, which stood not far to the north 
of the church. For several centuries Dunstable Priory 
was often visited by our kings. Hugh de Beauchamp 
had obtained the largest grant of lands in Bedfordshire 
when Domesday Book was compiled, and he was almost 
certainly Sheriff of the county at that time. At what 
date a stone castle was built at Bedford is uncertain, 
but no doubt the mound was at least strongly stockaded 
and already in his keeping. When built, the castle was 
of great strength and was held for some weeks by Miles 
de Beauchamp against Stephen's army. Henry (after- 
wards Henry II) attacked the castle in 1153 and did 
much damage to St Paul's church in the course of his 
siege, but whether he took it is not known. 

In 1 166 the burgesses of Bedford obtained a charter 
of incorporation from the Crown. For this they paid 
forty marks and an annual rent to the Crown. At 
the same time the county gaol was built at Bedford, 
probably at the corner of Silver Street and High Street, 
but possibly within the castle. 

In the troubles that arose towards the end of John's 



HISTORY 



79 



reign William de Beauchamp, the son of Simon, was one 
of the Barons who leagued together to demand a Charter 
of Liberties and on their repulse at Northampton came 
to Bedford, where he entertained them at his castle. 
John signed Magna Charta in June 121 5, but when the 
Pope declared it invalid, the King summoned foreign 
mercenaries, who marched north under Fulk de Breaute 



1 P 




I 



Bedford Castle 

{As reconstructed by Mr Charles H. Ashdown, F.R.G.S.) 



and other leaders, spent a night at Dunstable, and went 
on to Northampton, ravaging the estates of the discon- 
tented barons on the way. In December Fulk arrived 
at Bedford and captured the castle, which the King 
bestowed upon him. William de Beauchamp was one 
of the barons excommunicated by name, and Fulk got 
his lands with the castle, and also the castles of Hanslope, 
Oxford, and Northampton. He soon became the tyrant 



80 BEDFORDSHIRE 

and terror of the neighbourhood. He persecuted the 
monks of Warden, carrying off thirty of them prisoners 
to his castle at Bedford. In 1223 he resisted all demands 
for the surrender of his castles to castellans appointed 
by the Crown, and entered into relations with the dis- 
affected Earl of Chester and Llewelyn of Wales. The 
crisis came in 1224. In the summer of that year actions 
were brought before the judges at Dunstable by several 
freeholders of the Manor of Luton demanding the 
restitution of lands of which Fulk had dispossessed 
them. The decision was given against him in every 
case, and his brother, William de Breaute, acting by 
his orders, waylaid one of the judges, Henry de Bray- 
brook, an important landowner in the shire, and 
imprisoned him at Bedford. The news of this outrage 
found the King and his chief ministers in council at 
Northampton in June 1224. All other business was put 
aside, and within a week the King arrived at Bedford, 
with the Archbishop, Hubert de Burgh, and an armed 
force. Fulk was away in the West treating with 
Llewelyn, but his brother William had dismantled the 
churches of St Paul and St Cuthbert, and had made 
every preparation to hold the castle. This stood upon 
a site which may be easily traced to this day. Its ditch 
ran along the High Street on the west, south of Mill 
Lane on the north, and down Newnham Road to the 
river on the east. The keep or main tower was on the 
mound in the south-east of that area on which there is 
now a bowling-green and a summer-house. North of 
the keep was the inner, and west of it the outer, bailey. 



HISTORY 81 

The ditches were almost certainly filled with water 
diverted from the river. After desperate fighting and 
a siege of nearly two months, the besieged held only the 
strong inner tower or keep. The walls of this were now 
undermined and temporarily underpinned with shorings 
of wood. On the 14th August, 1224, all was ready, the 
wooden supports were set on fire, and as the smoke rose 
into the interior through the fissures in the cracking 
masonry, the besieged saw that further resistance was 
hopeless. They hoisted the royal ensign, set free the 
imprisoned judge and other captives, and sent out with 
them all the women who were within the walls. On 
the next day the garrison were brought before the King. 
Three were pardoned on condition they went on Crusade, 
the chaplain was handed over to Archbishop Langton for 
punishment, and more than eighty, including William de 
Breaute, were hanged upon the spot. Fulk came to 
Bedford and made his submission; he was deprived of 
all his possessions, banished the kingdom, and died 
abroad a few years later. The castle was dismantled, 
the walls "lowered," the keep destroyed, the ditches 
filled up and levelled, while the buildings of the inner 
bailey were stripped of their fortifications and given 
back to William de Beauchamp for a dwelling-house. 
Thus Bedford castle disappeared in 1224, and the 
Beauchamps did not long outlive it. Fulk de Breaute 
had also built a castle at Luton, which was dismantled 
at the same time. 

For the next forty years there is little to record in 
Bedfordshire but a couple of tournaments at Dunstable, 

c. b. 6 



82 BEDFORDSHIRE 

In 1263, when the quarrel between the Barons and the 
King led at last to actual warfare, Simon de Patteshall 
of Bletsoe, Hugh Gobion of Higham, Ralph Pyrot of 
Harlington, and Baldwin Wake of Stevington, all 
followed de Montfort. In February 1265, the Earl of 
Gloucester was to lead one side in a great tournament at 
Dunstable, but the meeting was forbidden by the King's 
Counsellors. Gloucester refused obedience, but was 
obliged to submit on the arrival of Simon de Montfort 
with a strong force. Their friendship had long been 
cooling, and this exercise of authority led to an open 
rupture. Gloucester left Dunstable in dudgeon, and he 
and de Montfort next met on the battlefield at Evesham. 
Amongst those who fell there with Earl Simon was John 
de Beauchamp, youngest of the sons of the William to 
whom the castle site had been restored. He was but 
just of age, and had "raised his banner for the first 
time" at the battle in which he fell, the last male 
representative of the Beauchamps of Bedford, on 
9th August, 1265. 

The year 1295 was the first in which Bedfordshire 
and the Borough of Bedford both began to send members 
regularlv to Parliament. Only one other town in the 
county was ever represented — Dunstable — which made 
no return to the writ issued to it for 131 1, but was 
represented in 13 12 by two burgesses. This, however, 
was the only Parliament to which it sent members. 

In the troubled reign of Edward II Dunstable was 
the scene of an assemblage of the discontented barons. 
After the king's death, Mortimer and the Queen held 



HISTORY 83 

a festival at Bedford in 1328, and the next year the 
Earl of Lancaster encamped near the town at the head 
of an army, and was with difficulty induced to make 
submission without a fight. 

In the reign of Henry VI, the weakness of the central 
government, and the lawlessness of the great landowners 
and nobles, were as noticeable in this county as else- 
where, and in 1439 large gatherings of gentlemen of 
the county and yeomen came into collision at Bedford, 
Lord Fanhope leading on one side, and Sir Thomas 
Wauton on the other, upon a dispute between rival 
Justices of the Peace. Lying between Northampton 
and St Albans, Bedfordshire must have suffered much 
from the disturbance of the Wars of the Roses, but no 
actual conflict took place within its borders. 

In the sixteenth century Bedford Grammar School 
was founded. Much property in the county came into 
the hands of the Crown, by the dissolution and forfeiture 
of the monasteries, and by the alienation of Ampthill 
and other estates to Henry VII. Henry VIII constituted 
the several royal estates into one as the Honor of 
Ampthill, and frequently spent some weeks at Ampthill 
Castle to hunt in the neighbouring parks. James I also 
repeatedly visited the county for hunting, and stayed 
at Ampthill, or as a guest at Bletsoe, Toddington, or 
Houghton. 

When the Civil War broke out the county as a whole 
declared for the Parliament. Many of the gentry of the 
county undoubtedly fought, and fought well, for the 
Crown, but "the King had not in Bedfordshire," says 

6—2 



84 BEDFORDSHIRE 

Clarendon, "any visible party or one fixed quarter." 
Rupert successfully attacked Bedford and held it for a 
short time, and Dunstable was plundered in the midst 
of its Michaelmas fair. Newport Pagnell was largely 
garrisoned and pecuniarily supported by Bedfordshire 
throughout the war, and in June 1644, w hen Essex 
had been enticed into Dorsetshire, and Waller was 
vainly endeavouring to come up with the King, the 
west side of Bedfordshire suffered much from the Royal 
army. Between the 22nd and 26th of June parties of 
the King's large force of cavalry raided Dunstable, 
Leighton, Hockliffe, and Woburn, and threatened 
Bedford. When Brown advanced from Hertford to 
co-operate with Waller, the King drew off, and Bedford- 
shire was left in peace. After Naseby (June 1645) the 
King made a circuitous march from Cardiff to Grantham, 
and reached Huntingdon 24th August, but finding he 
was pursued and had not sufficient force to do anything 
serious, he hastened across Bedfordshire to Oxford. 
After plundering Huntingdon, his troopers stripped the 
northern half of our shire of everything on which they 
could lay hands. On 25th August part of this force was 
at Bedford, and Charles slept that night and the next at 
Woburn Abbey. This was the last visit the Royalist 
troops paid the county. In August 1646, the garrison 
of Newport Pagnell and the small garrison of Bedford, 
which consisted of eighty foot and forty dragoons 
(mounted infantry), were disbanded. 

But though the county was now free from all menace 
of assault, it was to see the King once more within its 



HISTORY 85 

borders. When the controversy arose between the 
Army and Parliament upon the question of the settle- 
ment of the kingdom, the army headquarters were 
moved from Reading to Bedford, 22nd July, 1647, and 
the King was brought from Caversham to Woburn. 
Cromwell and Ireton were constantly at Bedford and 
kept up the negotiations that they had begun at Reading. 
Charles was treated with all respect, the Earl of Bedford, 
who had been for some time in retirement at Woburn, 
attended him, the Earl of Cleveland visited him from 
Toddington, as did many other gentlemen from the 
neighbourhood, and he was allowed the services of 
secretaries and chaplains. It was at Woburn that the 
Army's Proposals, drawn up by Ireton a the wise 
penman," were laid before him. The Army leaders 
were opposed to the Presbyterian element, which was 
strong in London and the Commons House, and wished 
to make their own arrangements with the King without 
the interference of Parliament. The King thought that 
he could play the Independents and the Presbyterians 
one against the other, and so gain time while he negoti- 
ated for the help of the Scots. When Ireton and 
other Army officers had their final interview with him 
at Woburn Abbey the King, who had been encouraged 
by private assurances that the Parliament and the 
Presbyterians in London would support him against the 
Army, surprised even his own counsellors by the "tart 
and bitter" words with which he received them. He 
insisted upon the legal establishment of the Church, and 
told them boldly that without him they could effect no 



86 BEDFORDSHIRE 

settlement. Sir John Berkeley, who was in attendance 
upon him and had already advised him that the terms 
offered by Ireton were more favourable than he could 
have hoped to get, ventured to whisper a warning, and 
the King made some attempt to be more conciliatory. 
But his words had had their effect. Colonel Rains- 
borough stole away from the Conference and galloped 
over to Bedford, where he harangued the troops and 
inflamed them against the King. Berkeley hurried 
after him, but was too late to counteract the impression 
which the report of the King's answer had already 
made; and when news suddenly arrived of the riot in 
London, the invasion of the Houses of Parliament, and 
the flight of the Speaker and many Members, the fervour 
was fanned to flame. The Army left Bedford on the 
29th of July to march upon the City, and two days later 
the King was removed from Woburn. He never had 
another chance of accepting such reasonable terms. 

During the centuries that have followed the Civil 
War few events of more than local concern have taken 
place within the county, and the part played in public 
affairs by Bedfordshire men is indicated in the section 
on the Worthies of the County. 



15. Antiquities. 

We have no written record of the history of our land 
antecedent to the Roman invasion in 55 b.c, but we 
know that Man inhabited it for ages before this date. 



ANTIQUITIES 87 

The art of writing being then unknown, the people of 
those days could leave us no account of their lives and 
occupations, and hence we term these times the Prehistoric 
period. But other things besides books can tell a story, 
and there has survived from their time a vast quantity of 
objects (which are daily being revealed by the plough 
of the farmer or the spade of the antiquary), such as 
the weapons and domestic implements they used, the huts 
and tombs and monuments they built, and the bones of 
the animals they lived on, which enable us to get a fairly 
accurate idea of the life of those days. 

So infinitely remote are the times in which the earliest 
forerunners of our race flourished, that scientists have not 
ventured to fix either the date or the length of the 
periods into which they have arranged them It must 
therefore be understood that these divisions or Ages — of 
which we are now going to speak — have been adopted 
for convenience sake rather than with any aim at 
accuracy. 

The periods have been named from the material of 
which the weapons and implements were at that time 
fashioned — the Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age; the 
Neolithic or Later Stone Age; the Bronze Age; and 
the Iron Age. But just as we find stone axes in use at 
the present day among savage tribes in remote islands, so 
it must be remembered that weapons of one material 
were often in use in the next Age, or possibly even in a 
later one ; that the Ages, in short, overlapped. 

Let us now examine these periods more closely. 
First, the Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age. Man was now 



88 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



in his most primitive condition. He probably did not 
till the land or cultivate any kind of plant or keep any 
domestic animals. He lived on wild plants and roots and 
such wild animals as he could kill, the reindeer being then 
abundant in this country. He was largely a cave-dweller 
and probably used skins exclusively for clothing. He 
erected no monuments to his dead and built no huts. He 
could, however, shape flint implements with very great 




Palaeolithic flint Implement from Biddenham 






dexterity, though he had not as yet learnt either to grind 
or to polish them. There is still some difference of opinion 
among authorities, but most agree that, though this may 
not have been the case in other countries, there was in 
our own land a vast gap of time between the people of 
this and the succeeding period. Palaeolithic man, who 
inhabited either scantily or not at all the parts north of 
England and made his chief home in the more southern 



ANTIQUITIES 89 

districts, disappeared altogether from the country, which 
was later re-peopled by Neolithic man. 

Neolithic man was in every way in a much more 
advanced state of civilisation than his precursor. He 
tilled the land, bred stock, wove garments, built huts, 
made rude pottery, and erected remarkable monuments. 
He had, nevertheless, not yet discovered the use of the 
metals, and his implements and weapons were still made 
of stone or bone, though the former were often beautifully 
shaped and polished. 

Between the Later Stone Age and the Bronze Age 
there was no gap, the one merging imperceptibly into the 
other. The discovery of the method of smelting the ores 
of copper and tin, and of mixing them, was doubtless a 
slow affair, and it must have been long before bronze 
weapons supplanted those of stone, for lack of inter- 
communication at that time presented enormous diffi- 
culties to the spread of knowledge. Bronze Age man, in 
addition to fashioning beautiful weapons and implements, 
made good pottery, and buried his dead in circular 
barrows. 

In due course of time man learnt how to smelt the 
ores of iron, and the Age of Bronze passed slowly into 
the Iron Age, which brings us into the period of written 
history, for the Romans found the inhabitants of Britain 
using implements of iron. 

We may now pause for a moment to consider who 
these people were who inhabited our land in these far-off 
ages. Of Palaeolithic man we can say nothing. His 
successors, the people of the Later Stone Age, are believed 



90 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



to have been largely of Iberian stock ; people, that is, from 
south-western Europe, who brought with them their 
knowledge of such primitive arts and crafts as were then 
discovered. How long they remained in undisturbed 
possession of our land we do not know, but they were 





Bronze Age Palstaves found at Wymington and Silsoe 



later conquered or driven westward by a very different 
race of Celtic origin — the Goidels or Gaels, a tall, light- 
haired people, workers in bronze, whose descendants 
and language are to be found to-day in many parts of 
Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man. Another Celtic 



ANTIQUITIES 91 

people poured into the country about the fourth century 
b.c. — the Brythons or Britons, who in turn dispossessed 
the Gaels, at all events so far as England and Wales are 
concerned. The Brythons were the first users of iron in 
our country. 

The Romans, who first reached our shores in b.c 55, 
held the land till about a.d. 410; but in spite of the 
length of their domination they do not seem to have left 
much mark on the people. After their departure, 
treading close on their heels, came the Jutes, Saxons, 
and Angles. But with these and with the incursions of 
the Danes and Irish we have left the uncertain region of 
the Prehistoric Age for the surer ground of History. 

In the middle of the last century a doctor at Abbeville, 
M. Boucher de Perthes, succeeded at last in persuading 
the scientific world that what we now term Palaeolithic 
flint instruments were neither freaks of nature nor 
shaped by accident, but of human workmanship. 
Among those who visited Abbeville, and studied the 
sites at which M. Boucher de Perthes had made his 
discoveries, was the late Mr James Wyatt of Bedford. 
He saw that the gravels of the Ouse presented conditions 
similar to those of Abbeville and Amiens; and he had 
for a long time studied the gravel-pits of Biddenham. 
They are sunk in a cap of gravel at some sixty feet above 
the present level of the river, and lie about half a mile 
north of its modern bed, and within the southern sweep 
with which the river curves from Bromham Bridge to 
Bedford. At a depth of about fourteen feet the gravel 
rests upon a mass of cornbrash, the highest member of 



92 BEDFORDSHIRE 

the oolite limestone. Mr Wyatt had already collected 
from near the base of the gravel, and from similar 
gravel beds in the neighbourhood, fossil bones of extinct 
mammals such as the cave-bear and hyena, extinct 
forms of rhinoceros, hippopotamus, deer, oxen, and 
elephants; and a careful examination of the gravel had 
proved that it was of fresh-water formation, and full of 
fragments from the drift clay. It was clear too that the 
whole mass over which the road runs from Bedford to 
Bromham Bridge had been an island of limestone about 
and upon which the Ouse had left deposits of clay and 
gravel, which it brought down from the north-west when 
it was cutting its way as a mighty river through the bed 
of boulder clay that spread from the Clapham hills to 
those of Kempston and Stagsden. Thus well prepared, 
Mr Wyatt patiently watched the gravel-pits, and at last 
his opportunity came. In the April of 1861 a fresh 
excavation was carried to the base, and eagerly scanning 
every spadeful, it was not long before he espied two 
excellent examples of types already familiar at Abbeville. 
The news of his discovery was heralded by English 
geologists as marking an epoch, not merely because it 
proved the presence of Palaeolithic man in Britain, but 
because the discovery carried our knowledge a step 
farther than it had been advanced by the French finds. 
"One step at least we gain," says Lyell, "by the Bedford 
sections, which those of Amiens and Abbeville had not 
enabled us to make. They teach us that the fabricators 
of the antique tools and the extinct mammalia were 
co-eval, or in other words posterior to the grand sub- 



ANTIQUITIES 93 

mergence of central England beneath the waters of the 
glacial sea.' 1 

Nearly thirty years later, in 1890, an even more 
remarkable find was made by Mr Worthington Smith in 
the extreme south of the county, upon ground very 
unlike the valleys of the Somme or the Ouse. This 
discovery again was the result of no mere chance; it 
came, as Mr Wyatt's had come, from observation, 
reasoning, and patient care. Mr Worthington Smith 
had found worn ochre-stained Palaeolithic flints on the 
surface of the Kensworth hills and the Houghton fields, 
and had endeavoured for eight years to account for their 
presence there. He has told the whole story, and it is 
a very interesting one, in his Man the Primeval Savage, 
which everyone in Bedfordshire should read. On one of 
his many visits to the Caddington brick-pits he noticed 
a thin band of flint in the face of one pit, and found that 
it consisted of sharp flakes. When this was uncovered 
it proved to be an old land-surface on which lay flakes, 
cores from which flakes had been struck, flint instru- 
ments, and a number of still unbroken flints so piled as 
to make it evident that they had been placed there by 
human agency, and still bearing traces on them of the 
different soil from which they had been extracted. 
All these were buried under a bed of mud, formed partly 
of boulder clay, partly of the tertiary clays that are 
found in patches on the heights of Caddington and 
Kensworth. The sections of this clay showed clearly 
that it had been brought down in a liquid stream from 
higher ground. This Palaeolithic "floor" lies at a height 



94 BEDFORDSHIRE 

of 520 feet above sea level and some 150 feet above the 
average level at which water now lies in the chalk. 
So gradually did the mud cover up the floor that 
Mr Worthington Smith has been able to reconstruct 
flints from the flakes, finding in some cases as many as 
a dozen which fitted one another accurately. The edges 
are as sharp as those of flakes struck off to-day, and 
show no sign of being rolled by water. All the flint 
instruments found on this floor are Palaeolithic, but 
none are of the spearhead type that occurs at Biddenham. 
They are generally scrapers, oval blades, narrow 
knife-like blades, punch-shaped, or hammers. They 
show no sign of ochre-staining, but vary from black 
through indigo to grey and white, and have a china-like 
surface. In the clay with which they are covered 
were found specimens of the ochre-stained worn kind, 
which it was clear had preceded in time those which 
they helped to bury. An admirably-arranged case 
illustrates the discovery, and begins the series of flint 
instruments exhibited at the British Museum. 

When Neolithic man arrived Britain was an island. 
The clay hills of Bedfordshire were covered with forest 
growth, the plains were marshes, and the new-comers 
would at first inhabit the chalk uplands and the gravel 
ridges by the rivers. They were a dolichocephalic, or 
long-headed race, and made long barrows or tumuli in 
which they buried their dead. Their stone axes and 
chisel-like weapons called celts have been found at 
Pavenham and Felmersham, Kempston, Biddenham, 
Cardington, and along the Ivel valley, and more generally 



ANTIQUITIES 95 

in the neighbourhood of Dunstable. There too are still 
to be seen some remains of the long tumuli, though 
many have been destroyed by the plough. 

Relics of Bronze Age man also occur in Bedfordshire. 
Their hut-hollows and round tumuli may be seen on the 
Dunstable downs, and their socketed bronze celts have 
been found at Wymington, Toddington, and near 
Dunstable, and along the Ouse and Ivel valleys. Two 
of their camps, Maiden Bovver and Waulud's Bank, 
still remain; and the encampments at Totternhoe, 
Mossbury Hill near Bedford, Caesar's Camp at Sandy, 
and John of Gaunt's at Sutton may have been originally 
occupied by them. Maiden Bower is a circular camp of 
slightly irregular outline, which measures 775 by 750 feet 
and stands about a mile west of Dunstable. It covers 
more than ten acres and is pierced by five entrances. 
The rampart is strongest on the south-west, where it 
measures 28 feet through at the base and is 10 ft. 6 ins. 
in height. The surrounding ditch originally measured 
about 20 feet in width, but its outer edge is now scarcely 
visible. From the number of flint implements found 
in this camp it is probable that it was first thrown up 
by Neolithic Man and later occupied by people of the 
Bronze Age. Waulud's Bank lies just north of Leagrave 
station. Its shape would be a segment of about half a 
circle, and it covers about ten acres. 

A long time before the arrival of the Romans the 
Celts had taken to using iron for their cutting tools and 
weapons. Their coins, uninscribed and inscribed, have 
been found near Dunstable and in the Ivel valley: 



96 BEDFORDSHIRE 

those that can be dated are of the age of Julius Caesar 
and bear names of British kings, whose capital was at 
Verulam (St Albans). 

The Roman remains are not of great importance, 
though they include specimens of many different objects 
— coins, pottery, glass, instruments, ornaments, and 
utensils in bronze, brass, iron, and silver. No kind of 
inscription has been found in the county except oculists' 
stamps and a seat pass, and but one piece of sculpture. 
But sufficient evidence exists of the presence of Roman 
or Romano-British settlements at Bedford and thence 
up the Ouse in the direction of Irchester (Northants), 
east to Sandy, south of Sandy through the Ivel valley, 
and south-west through Shefford along the southern 
edge of the Sandy district to Woburn, and at Dunstable 
and its neighbourhood in the south. 

Fragments of pottery and coins of the Roman period 
have been found at Biddenham, Elstow, Cople, Cranfield, 
Northill and Caldecote, Old Warden, Haynes, Maulden, 
Flitton, Toddington, Higham Gobion, Shillington, Clifton, 
Stotfold, Caddington, Luton, and Kensworth. Mr W. 
Ransom, of Hitchin, has some fine bowls from Arlesey 
and Astwick, many of them Samian, and some of them of 
the Castor and Upchurch ware, specimens of which may 
be dated as of the first and second centuries. A bronze 
steelyard weight was found at Bromham. A well still 
exists in a field at Biddenham in which fragments of 
pottery, bones of animals, and a piece of Roman sculpture 
in relief were found half a century ago. Another well, 
120 feet in depth, was opened close to Maiden Bower, 



ANTIQUITIES 97 

containing Roman fragments; and in the immediate 
neighbourhood have been found pottery, coins, and other 
objects, and a paste intaglio portrait of Carausius. In 
Bedford remains have occurred in Home Lane, Castle 
Lane, the High Street, and Potter Street (or Cardington 
Road). A gold coin of Vespasian was found at Tottern- 
hoe, a store of about iooo (dating 196-270 a.d.) at Luton 
Hoo, and others at Yelden and Willington and elsewhere. 
At Stanford, north-west of Clifton, two rooms 
described as "vaults" were discovered eighty years ago. 




Anglo-Saxon glass Drinking Cup found at Kempston 

(ioi inches long, width of mouth 3^ inches) 

Each was 15 feet by 12 feet and 5 feet in depth. One 
contained bronze pans and jugs, cooking utensils, Samian 
and other pottery, remains of six amphorae or wine-jars, 
a flute, and a bone-handled knife. In the other were 
found silver tweezers, silver buckles, glass vases of 
different colours, beads, Samian pottery and wine-jars. 
At Shefford a Roman cemetery was unearthed in 1826, 
and amid numerous articles of interest were a handsome 
flat bronze bowl with a ram's-head spout and ornamental 
handle, vessels of glass, a leaden eagle, and an amphora. 



98 BEDFORDSHIRE 

Samian ware, and coins dating from 14-356 a.d. were 
also found at Shefford. At Sandy (which is not now 
identified with Salinae) the principal finds have been at 
Chesterfield, between Galley Hill and Caesar's Camp. 
Besides coins dating from 28 B.C. to 450 a.d., pottery, 
including a rivetted Samian bowl and Castor ware, and 
glass, there have been found a silver ring with a cornelian, 
a bronze plaque with a head of Mercury in relief, bronze 
bowls, and a sword. 

We may now turn to Anglo-Saxon remains. To the 
west of Bedford on the Clapham Road, between Bedford 
and Newnham, and at Toddington and elsewhere, several 
graves have been opened. But of greater interest and 
importance is the discovery at the Kempston gravel- 
pits in 1863 of a burial ground of some extent which 
appears to have been long in use. Here both burnt and 
unburnt bodies were found, and the opinion formed by 
those who studied this burial ground at the time of its 
discovery was that the ashes belonged in many cases to 
an earlier use of the cemetery, that the intrusion of 
unburnt bodies had often displaced and disturbed 
earlier urn-burials, but that at a later time the two 
modes were practised contemporaneously. As cre- 
mation is considered to be characteristic of Anglian, and 
unburnt burial of West Saxon graves, the burial ground 
at Kempston gives testimony, consistent with such 
other evidence as we have, of the mingling of the two 
kindred nationalities. Moreover, the brooches discovered 
here are of two types — round, considered to be West 
Saxon, and cruciform, East Saxon or Anglian. 



ANTIQUITIES 99 

Several of the Kempston urns are adorned with 
incised patterns. One, found in the same neighbourhood, 
is remarkable for a small disc of greenish glass inserted 
in the bottom before the clay was fixed; its shoulders 
are adorned with incised patterns, and the lower half 
is deeply fluted. A large urn from Sandy, 9 inches high 
and 3 feet in girth, has elliptical bulges at intervals of 
its circumference. 

We have in Bedfordshire some good typical earth- 
works. The small rectangular camp at Tempsford, 
ramparted and deeply moated, 120 feet by 84, must be 
the "work" which the Danes threw up there in 921. 
The " King's ditch " at Bedford bounds the Saxon 
burh which Edward the Elder erected south of the 
Ouse. A large series of " motte-and-baileys," otherwise 
known as mound-and-court castles, most historians now 
think were of Norman origin, being the rough and 
quickly-made strongholds which alien conquerors would 
require; instances are to be found at Bedford, where 
the castle was held for the king by succeeding members 
of the Beauchamp family and where stone defences 
were later added to the earthworks; at Cainhoe, near 
Clophill, the head of the Daubeny barony; at Odell, 
Thurleigh, Poddington, Ridgmont, and Totternhoe, all 
connected with the barony of Odell; at Eaton Socon, 
Yelden, Chalgrave, Toddington, Flitwick, Sutton, Tils- 
worth, and Meppershall, where either some sub-tenant 
of William I's or some rebel of Stephen's reign, imitating 
his more powerful neighbours, erected a small personal 
stronghold. 




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ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 101 



16. Architecture — (a) Ecclesiastical. 

Before the Norman style of architecture was intro- 
duced into England in the middle of the eleventh 
century, churches were built of wood and stone, and their 
style is still called Saxon. We have record of a stone 
church taking the place of a wooden one at Studham 
just before the Conquest. The characteristic of Saxon 
architecture is the so-called long and short work, an 
alternation of vertical and horizontal pieces of stone 
forming the quoins or corners of the building, and serving 
both as ornament and frame for the rubble walls, into 
which the horizontal pieces bond them. Other features 
are triangular instead of semi-circular heads of windows 
and doorways, and balusters dividing window-openings, 
though these latter continued in use to a later period, 
as in the tower of St Mary's in Bedford. The tower of 
Clapham church, except its top storey which belongs 
to the twelfth century, is generally recognised as of 
pre-Conquest date. The tower of St Peter's in Bedford 
has been much tampered with and rebuilt outside, but 
inside there is a good specimen of the triangular- 
headed window. The lower part of the tower at 
Stevington has a Saxon doorway, and round-headed 
windows in the north and south fronts, which now 
open into aisles. The windows are double-splayed, and 
one of them still has in it remains of the pierced slab of 
wood which once filled the central aperture. 

The Romanesque or Norman period lasted for about 



,-lpr* 




Norman Doorway, St Thomas's Chapel, Meppershall 



ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL L03 

a century after the Conquest. It is characterised by 
massiveness, semi-circular arches, flat shallow vertical 
buttresses, and small window-openings. The capitals 
of the columns and pillars, and the ornaments of the 
arches of important doorways, are often grotesque, 
sometimes reproducing motives of earlier northern orna- 
ments, and often consisting of simple zigzags or rows of 
billets. Important doorways are recessed, and show a 
succession of arches beneath the main one, each in a 
plane behind the plane of the one next above it ; and the 
jambs of these arches are often filled by small corner 
columns. The west front of Dunstable is a good speci- 
men of a late Norman recessed doorway, the ornament 
of which is partly classical, partly northern. Sometimes 
the doorway has a carved relief in the tympanum or 
space between the lintel and the arch-head above, as 
the north door at Elstow, or the south door of the tower 
at Thurleigh. The towers of St Mary's in Bedford, 
Kempston, Meppershall, and Cranfield show Norman 
work; Norman doorways may be seen at Little Barford, 
St Peter's in Bedford, Cranfield, St Thomas's chapel in 
Meppershall, and two interesting specimens at Kens- 
worth. The most notable interior Norman architecture 
is in the nave of Dunstable, the eastern part of the nave 
at Elstow including the clerestory windows, and the 
nave at Everton ; and several churches, such as Kemp- 
ston, Knotting, and Poddington, retain their Norman 
chancel arches. 

After the middle of the twelfth century the style 
grew lighter and more elegant, and gradually passed by 



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ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 105 

a period of transition to that which is called Early 
English. This period may be roughly dated from 1190 to 
1290, and is marked by the introduction of the pointed 




South door, Eaton Bray Church 



arch. The transition from Norman to Early English is 
well illustrated by the west front of Dunstable with its 
big recessed Norman doorway flanked on the north by 
an Early English doorway, from which it is separated 



106 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



by a piece of Norman arcading of interlacing arches 
under a pointed arch of which the south arc has Norman 
ornament, the north Early English moulding. Above 
this arch and the doorway north of it runs an excellent 
specimen of Early English arcading, a series of recessed 
pointed arches supported by grouped columns. The in- 
terior of Elstow church again illustrates the transition, the 




N. Transept S. Transept 

St Mary's Church, Felmersham 
{Showing stages of lancet development) 

eastern part being pure Norman, the western transitional 
with one arch at least thoroughly Early English. Grace, 
proportion, delicacy, restraint in ornament, and the 
beauty of contrasting light and shadow, are the notes of 
this style when it arrives at its perfection. Elaborate 
mouldings with deep undercutting produce marvellous 
effects of light and shade, and the slender columns, or 
groups of columns, whose lines are continued above in the 




Nave arcading, Eaton Bray Church 



108 BEDFORDSHIRE 

separate mouldings, have a grace and elegance that is 
absent from the heavier Norman. The two churches 
which are best worth careful study are those of Felmer- 
sham and Eaton Bray. The former of these has a 
central tower, transepts, chancel, and nave with aisles. 
Its original east window is gone, the two central lancets 
of its west window have been at some early date com- 
bined into one central light, and the roof has been cut 
down, but with these exceptions the church stands 
almost exactly as it was built in the first half of the 
thirteenth century. The mouldings of the arches under 
the tower and in the nave are good specimens of Early 
English, which may also be studied at Harrold, Perten- 
hall, Chalgrave, Studham, and other churches, but they 
are surpassed by the masterly work in the north arcade 
and aisle at Eaton Bray. In this church the capitals 
of the columns also show the conventional Early English 
foliage at its best. 

As the thirteenth century drew to a close the Early 
English style developed gradually into the Decorated, 
which is sometimes called Edwardian, because it 
extended over the reigns of the first three Edwards. 
The crosses erected to mark the halting-places upon the 
route by which the body of Queen Eleanor was brought 
to Westminster, and her tomb in the Abbey, show the 
excellence that sculpture and architectural ornament 
had attained by the end of the thirteenth century. 
Two of these crosses were erected in Bedfordshire, at 
Woburn and Dunstable, but were destroyed by the 
ruthless ignorance of the Parliamentarian armies in the 



ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 109 

Civil War of the seventeenth century. The beautiful 
wrought-iron screen on the north side of Queen Eleanor's 
tomb at Westminster was the work of a Bedfordshire 
iron-worker, Thomas of Leighton Buzzard (1294). There 
is good iron-work on the church doors at Eaton Bray, 
Turvey, and Leighton. 

The chief features of the transition from Early 
English to Decorated are the abandonment of lancet 
arches for arches around an equilateral triangle, the 
development of tracery in windows, various changes in 
the section of mouldings, less depth in undercutting, 
the introduction of crockets and highly-ornamental 
finials, the use of the ogee arch, and of triangular gables 
over trefoil openings in canopies of niches. The tooth 
ornament of Early English disappears and is often 
replaced by the ball flower 1 , which is characteristic of 
Decorated in many places, but not common in Beds. 
The most notable feature of this period, however, is the 
development of window tracery. In the Early English 
style two or more separate lancet lights were placed 
side by side under a common arch. Where there were 
three the middle one was sometimes the tallest, as in 
the east end at Meppershall. Where there were two 
of equal height a blank space or tympanum was left 
between the heads of the lights and the arch above, and 
this was often pierced with a circular or quatrefoil 
opening, as in the transept at Felmersham. In all these 
cases the lights were independent and only in juxta- 

1 The ball flower is a spherical outer case about a ball, the case 
gaping with a trefoil opening in front and showing the ball. 



-.:.-...■- : s 




ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 1 1 1 

position, separated by some width of walling. Gradually 
this space was reduced to the moulded casing of the 
several lights, but so that the framework of each light was 
independent of the other, and thus "tracery" came into 
being. A beautiful example, marking the entrance of 
the Decorated period, may be seen in the east window 
of the north aisle of Sundon. In some cases as many as 
five lancets with trefoiled heads were ranged together 
under one rear-arch and the whole space above filled 
with a network of stone mouldings inclosing quatrefoil 
or lozenge-shaped lights representing the meshes of a 
net. This is very characteristic of the early Decorated 
period, and examples may be found at Langford, Sutton, 
Dunton (east window), Wymington, Sundon, and else- 
where. Gradually the lines of the tracery grew to be 
an organic whole, as in the east window of the south 
aisle at Dunton, and in windows at Yelden and Chel- 
lington. Clifton (nave and chancel), Sundon, Yelden, 
Tempsford, Higham Gobion, Shillington, Wymington, 
St Paul's Bedford, Westoning, Northill, Salford, and 
Leighton Buzzard are all worth study for different 
features of this style. Westoning is notable for the 
effect of grandeur given by the height of the nave 
arcades. At Salford the wooden porch is an interesting 
feature. 

In the later development of Decorated two features 
prepare us for a change. Many of the smaller window- 
openings are square-headed, as for instance at Wyming- 
ton, although the tracery is essentially Decorated. 
Here and there too we find windows in which two of 




St Lawrence's, Wymington 



ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTIC AL 1 1 3 

the mullions or vertical divisions between the lower 
lights are carried up straight through the tracery to the 
arch-head above; the east window at Chellington is an 
example. But, in the main, there was no transition 
period, and the architecture of the next period, the 
Perpendicular, was a new departure, which developed 
after the Black Death had checked all building for a 
time, and was both widespread and rapidly adopted. 
It is characterised, as its name implies, by the perpen- 
dicular (and horizontal) arrangement of the tracery, by 
flattened arches and rectangular panelling, by elaborate 
vault-traceries, especially fan-vaulting, by increased 
window space, flattened roofs, and towers without 
spires. Most of the churches of Bedfordshire were added 
to or altered under the influence of this style. The 
high-pitched roofs — the original position of which can be 
often traced where they abutted on the east side of the 
western towers — were cut down and surrounded with 
battlements, towers were rebuilt, porches added, and 
new windows inserted, especially in the aisles and 
clerestories. The Perpendicular period lasted from the 
latter part of the fourteenth century till the dissolution 
of the monasteries (15 30-1 540), though there are some 
later instances, such as the north nave arcade of Campton. 
The chancel screens and the remains of the rood lofts 
that are to be found in several Bedford churches date 
from this period ; e.g. at Pertenhall, Oakley, Felmersham, 
and Eaton Socon. Dean has a magnificent wooden roof 
adorned with angels carved in wood ; Barton one with 
figures of eagles. Eaton Socon, Colmworth, Flitton, 
c. b. 8 




Stevington Church 
(Showing "long and short work" in the lower fart of the tower 
1 * windows of Decorated period) 



ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 115 

Tingrith, Marston Moreteyne, Cople, and Willington are 
interesting Perpendicular churches. The most perfect 
piece of work characteristic of the period is perhaps at 
Luton, in the arch which opens from the north of the 
chancel to the Someries chapel. It gives an excellent 
example of Perpendicular panelling. 

Most of the churches north of the Ouse have spires; 
but south of the river there are none except at Leighton 
Buzzard, Chellington, Eyworth, and Ridgmont which 
is modern. The spire of Leighton Buzzard is a fine 
specimen of Early English work. It is of the "broach" 
type, capping the tower directly, and not rising from 
within a parapet. Those of Pertenhall and Souldrop are 
also broach spires. The Perpendicular spires rise from 
within the socket of a parapet and seldom combine so 
well with the square tower as do the broach spires, 
unless the junction is adorned by well-proportioned 
pinnacles. Colmworth and St Paul's Bedford are 
instances of the parapet type. In Norman and Early 
English churches the tower very often stood at the 
intersection of chancel, nave, and transepts. St Peter's 
Bedford, St Mary's Bedford, Leighton Buzzard, Todding- 
ton, Felmersham, and Meppershall are all of this plan. 
Most of the towers of Bedfordshire churches are at the 
west end, but there are some exceptions. Langford 
tower is south of the south aisle. Stevington and 
Sundon have towers at the west end, but enclosed 
between the aisles. At Elstow and Marston Moreteyne 
the towers are isolated. The early Clapham tower was 
probably part of a stronghold. It is altogether out of 

8—2 



i 





iljl 



* 




All Saints' Church, Leighton Buzzard 



idl 



ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 117 

proportion to the size of the church, which was originally 
a mere chapel of Oakley. The manor house at Clapham 
actually abutted upon the west side of the tower, and 
the church was probably at one time a manorial chapel. 
The tower of Felmersham is the one good Early English 
tower. Odell is an excellent specimen of a Perpen- 
dicular tower, but perhaps the most elegant specimen of 
this style in the county is the tower of Cockayne Hatley. 
The carved woodwork at Warden is excellent, and few 
churches possess such wood-carving as that of the 
stalls at Cockayne Hatley. But in neither case is the 
work English : it has been brought in recent times from 
the Netherlands. 

The churches of the oolite district are generally 
built of local limestone. Poddington, Farndish, and 
some other churches of the north-west use Northamp- 
tonshire limestone and sandstone. Those in and near 
the central sandy district are wholly or in part of sand- 
stone. Chalk rock, especially Totternhoe stone, and flint 
are used in the south, and in Luton clunch and dressed 
flints are used chequer-wise. In the clay districts pebbles 
are largely employed; and pebbles, chalk rocks, flint 
and sandstone are combined according to convenience 
of locality. In the case of larger churches which have 
been built by the more wealthy monasteries or land- 
owners limestone has been used which is not of local 
origin. 



118 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



17. Architecture — (b) Domestic. 

The cottages of Bedford are described in the beginning 
of the nineteenth century as generally consisting of two, 
three, or four rooms with a small piece of garden ground, 




Cottages at Ampthill 



frequently not exceeding a tenth of an acre. In the 
north-east of the county they were built with "daub and 
wattle," or, as it is locally termed, " stud and mud." 
Bricks and tiles were in more common use in the southern 



ARCHITECTURE— DOMESTIC 1 1 9 

part of the county, and limestone was the ordinary 
material used in the oolite district of the north-west, in 
the triangle between Stagsden, Yelden, and Bedford. 
The chief change that has taken place in materials is the 
more widespread use of bricks. The older cottages of 
the limestone district are of stone, but those built within 
the last fifty years are usually of brick, and brick is in 
general use in the north-east as well as the centre and 
south. 

The most noticeable feature of the Bedfordshire 
cottages is the semi-circular or segmental brow with 
which the roof often undulates over the upper windows. 
It apparently originates in thatching, but nevertheless 
is often retained when tiles replace thatch. Other 
features are the cream-coloured tint with which the 
plaster is washed, and the framework of wood in the 
earlier brick buildings. 

The dwelling-house of more importance than a mere 
cottage or hut, but not aspiring to the dignity of a 
fortress or palace, was for many centuries after the 
Norman Conquest of a simple type. The main part of 
it was the hall, an oblong room with an unceiled roof. 
To right and left of this there were added one or two 
private rooms for the convenience of the family, and 
rooms for storage and treatment of food and drink — 
the buttery and kitchen. The only upper rooms, or 
solars, were in these wings. Matthew Paris, the 
chronicler of St Albans, speaks of Panlin Peyvre, who 
died in 1251, as "an incomparable builder of manor 
houses," and tells us that at Toddington he built a hall, 



120 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



a chapel, and private rooms, with other buildings, all 
of stone with lead roofs, and planted orchards and 
constructed fish-ponds in the grounds. Some twenty 
years later the Cainhoe property was divided between 
three heiresses, and the chief residence is described as 
Cainhoe Hall, with porch, chamber, and cellar towards 




Cottages at Cardington 



the east, bakehouse, dovecot, garden, fish-ponds, and 
three barns, and another chamber of limestone to the 
west. 

The common type of old-fashioned manor house has 
preserved the tradition of this disposition. The central 
oblong mass of the house represents the old hall, though 



ARCHITECTURE— DOMESTIC 121 

it may now consist of three storeys and be divided into 
rooms and passages ; the two gabled wings at right angles 
to it have grown out of the additional rooms. It was 
probably not till the sixteenth century that it became 
common to insert a floor upon beams over the lower 
part of the hall, so making a ground-floor room, or 
perhaps two, and a passage to connect the two ends of 
the house. If the height was sufficient the roof space 
was also divided into rooms, and dormer windows were 
inserted in the roof. The old moated manor farm-house 
at Marston Moreteyne still preserves considerable remains 
of the timber work which formed its small central hall 
centuries ago. The central part of the house now 
consists of a ground floor, an upper storey, and a roof 
space above: but on the first storey the upper parts of 
the curving beams that formed some of the arched 
supports of the old hall roof have been kept where they 
were wanted to help in constructing partition walls for 
bedrooms and landings. 

Harlington manor house till lately had the date 
1396 upon it, and an old view of it given in Dr Brown's 
Life of Bunyan shows the relative size and importance 
of the central block, though internally it had already 
been divided into three storeys. Many farm houses in 
Bedfordshire were once manor houses. Campton manor 
house represents a late sixteenth-century development 
of the central hall with gabled wings. It is interesting 
too as still retaining the screens which were erected across 
the entrance, but within the hall, to give privacy and 
avoid the draught caused by the constant opening and 



122 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



shutting of the hall door during the service of dinner. 
The Campton screens are late Elizabethan woodwork. 
One of the sitting-rooms also is panelled with Elizabethan 
panelling and bears a bullet mark of 1645 upon it. 
Haynes Grange farm house has one very old half-timbered 
wing, and still retains the H shape given by a central 




Cardington Manor House 



hall connecting two wings. Cardington manor house 
farm is only about half of the original house, one wing 
and part of the centre. It dates from the sixteenth 
century and has a fine twisted chimney, several handsome 
chimney-pieces in the bedrooms, and panelled ceilings. 
A house in Cotton End, Cardington, the remains of 



ARCHITECTURE— DOMESTIC 



123 



one of similar type, retains an elaborately-moulded seven- 
teenth-century ceiling with coats of arms, human figures, 
and emblems in relief. Cardington and Marston manors 
are enclosed within moats still filled with water. Twisted 
chimneys of the same type as in Cardington manor 
house are a feature also of the old manor house of 




Ruins of Houghton Conquest House 

Mavorns, Bolnhurst, and of the brick building which is 
all that is left of Warden Abbey. 

Houghton House has been dismantled for more than 
a century, but the general disposition of the rooms is 
clear. It was built between 1615 and 1620 for the 
Countess of Pembroke by Italians, if we may trust 
John Aubrey, who gathered his information thirty or 
forty years later. Although it does not retain the 




u 



ARCHITECTURE— DOMESTIC 1 25 

ordinary manor-house type, but approximates to a 
square with corner towers, the old idea still dominates 
the disposition of the apartments. Upon the ground 
floor at least the eastern part is the service side, the 
western contains the living-rooms ; the whole of the central 
part is practically the hall duplicated, a north hall and 
a south hall back to back. The rooms are of a good 
height throughout, and freely supplied with fireplaces, 
and the upper floor extends over the halls as else- 
where. 

Some houses have a very different origin, and are 
adaptations of conventual buildings. Lord St John's 
house at Melchbourne contains, with much alteration, 
part of the buildings of the Knights Hospitallers. 
Chicksands not only takes its shape from the part of the 
Priory which it has preserved, but still shows much of 
the old work. It belonged to the Gilbertines, an English 
Order, and the shape and peculiarities of the house may 
be all traced to its original structure and requirements. 
Bushmead Priory still possesses its old refectory, annexed 
to but not incorporated in the modern house. The 
open roof appears to preserve much of its original timber 
and form, dating apparently from the beginning of the 
thirteenth century. At a later period it has been 
divided into two storeys by the insertion of flooring. 
The old house at Woburn, which had been formed from 
the Abbey buildings, was pulled down just before the 
middle of the eighteenth century; the chapel and 
cloisters fifty years later. Of the house which rose 
on the ruins of Newenham Priory nothing remains but a 



126 BEDFORDSHIRE 

few fragments of brick wall; and the "Britannia" works 
stand on the site of Caldwell Priory. The refectory of 
the Franciscan house at Bedford was removed about 
twenty years ago, and its place taken by a school play- 
ground and garden in Priory Street. 

All that remains of Warden Abbey is a block of red 
brick with twisted chimneys that probably formed part 
of the Abbot's lodgings. It dates from the early 
sixteenth century. Nothing is left of Dunstable Priory 
but some interesting remains of the hospitium or guest- 
house now forming part of a building in the Watling 
Street. The old "Moot Hall" which stands upon Elstow 
Green is a good example of a brick and timber building 
of the fifteenth or sixteenth century, and is thought to 
have served as the guest-house of the abbey. 

In some cases castles or fortresses were converted 
into country dwelling-houses, but no complete example 
occurs in Bedfordshire, and most of the sites that were 
once fortified can now onlv be traced bv earthworks. But 
one fragment is of great interest — the gate, gatehouse, 
and chapel of Someries, near Luton. It is a very early 
specimen of brick building, and was left unfinished at 
the death of Lord Wenlock in 1471. Its most interesting 
features are the adaptation of the old defensive structure 
to mere ornament. Over the main gateway, and over 
the postern that flanks it, are what appear at first sight 
to be pierced projecting galleries for attacking intruders 
from above the entrances; but thev are not pierced, 
and serve only to give ornament and variety to the 
front. A farm house close to Bletsoe church still keeps 



ARCHITECTURE— DOMESTIC 



127 



the name of Bletsoe Castle, and is in fact a portion of 
one side of the large square of which that castle consisted. 
Odell Castle is now a country house, but it still contains 
considerable portions of the buildings that have suc- 
ceeded one another on that site since the Conquest. 
Ampthill Castle, which was built in the first half of the 




Someries Castle, Luton 



fifteenth century, disappeared in the early half of the 
seventeenth, and Bedford Castle was dismantled as far 
back as 1224-5. 

The mansions at Ampthill, Aspley, and Ickwell Bury 
were built at the end of the seventeenth century. The 
front of Hinwick Hall is a characteristic specimen of 
the semi-classical style in vogue in the middle of the 
eighteenth century. Luton Hoo has suffered so much 



128 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



by fire and rebuilding that it has lost most of its interest, 
and Wrest Park, which stands a couple of hundred 
yards north of the site of the ancient house shown in 
Kip's engraving, is a modern house in the style of a French 
chateau. 




Old cottages, Luton 



Of public buildings for civil purposes there are none 
of much antiquity. There are still remains, probably of 
the fourteenth or fifteenth century, of the Old George 
Inn at Bedford, and there are many old barns, such as 
the large tithe barn at Felmersham. Dove-houses of 
sixteenth and seventeenth century date are not un- 



ARCHITECTURE— DOMESTIC 129 

common, as for instance at Harrowden and Willington; 
and that at Ickwell Bury still retains its revolving ladder 
to visit the niches on each side successively. 



18. Communications — Past and Pre= 
sent. 

In judging of the probable direction followed by 
roads in early days it must be remembered that low-lying 
land was liable to flood, and was in many places little 
better than marsh. Thus the more important lines of 
communication were in pre-Roman days along the drier 
heights. In British times they were mere tracks. The 
most notable of these led along the northern edge and 
slope of the chalk from Norfolk through Cambridge- 
shire, Hertfordshire, South Bedfordshire, Bucks, and 
Oxfordshire to the Thames near Goring and Wallingford, 
and then across the Berkshire and Wiltshire downs to 
Bath or to Avebury. This is the famous Icknield Way. 
It was a broad track, not a road in the modern sense, 
but the Romans used it, and found it practicable with- 
out treatment. It entered the county at Dray's Ditches, 
passed Waulud's Bank near Leagrave, and ran through 
Dunstable south of Maiden Bower and Totternhoe to 
the border of Bucks. Documents dealing with property 
at Dunstable name it repeatedly from the twelfth century 
to this day. 

The Romans were the first great makers of roads, 
here as elsewhere in Europe, Sections of Roman roads 

CB 9 







C 
C 



COMMUNICATIONS 131 

show sometimes three separate beds of varying kinds 
built up beneath a surface of carefully-compacted stones 
to a depth of more than three feet. When the earth 
was by nature sufficiently solid they dispensed with 
one or more of the lower beds. Mr Worthington Smith 
records the exposure of 165 feet of the old Roman work 
upon the Watling Street near Kensworth Lynch, between 
the Horse and Jockey and Pack Horse inns. He de- 
scribes the surface as made up of closely-compacted flint 
stones, hard sandstone, and other stones such as are 
found in the neighbourhood. A hole, picked with diffi- 
culty, showed a thickness of nine inches. Two Roman 
roads entered the county. The Watling Street came in 
between Caddington and Kensworth, and ran to the 
Buckinghamshire border near Little Brickhill, crossing 
the Icknield Way in Dunstable. The Stane (or Stone) 
Way was a deviation from the Erming, or Ermine, 
Street, the main north road from Colchester and London 
to Lincoln and beyond. The Colchester Stane Way and 
London Ermine Street met at Braughing, whence the 
Stane Way passed through Baldock, Biggleswade, and 
Sandy, then through or near Everton and Tetworth, and 
so to Godmanchester in Huntingdon, where it again 
joined the Ermine Street. A glance at the map will 
show that this road follows almost exactly the course 
of the Great Northern Railway, just as the London and 
North-Western main line follows approximately that of 
the Watling Street. The obvious explanation is that 
like requirements produced similar results. The Roman 
base of operations was a triangle, of which the three points 

,9—2 



132 BEDFORDSHIRE 

were Richborough and the neighbouring ports con- 
centrating at Canterbury, London (the centre of trade 
and key of the Thames valley), and Colchester (their 
first military headquarters). From London and Col- 
chester they pierced the country north-west and north, 
to Chester on the one hand, and to Lincoln and beyond 
on the other. The Chester road was carried along the 
general line of the watershed, only crossing rivers 
comparatively near their sources. The Lincoln road had 
to deviate to the west to avoid the Fen country. The 
Bedfordshire curve through Sandy may have been the 
original route, or it may have been a later diversion 
to avoid the greater extent of unsound soil at certain 
seasons. 

There are many evidences of the Roman origin of a 
road other than those of its construction : the remains 
of Roman camps, sites along the route, or place-names, 
such as Streatford, Streatley, Stratton, Street, Chester, 
Caster and its varieties, Cold Harbour and Caldecote, 
Stone, Stane, Stanford, etc. It will often be found, 
too, that a Roman road serves as a boundary; and 
lastly there is the evidence of Roman military "road 
books" or Itineraries. So the Watling Street is a 
straight boundary between Tilsworth, Hockliffe, and 
Heath-and-Reach (in the original parish of Leighton) on 
the south, and Chalgrave, Battlesden, and Potsgrove on 
the north ; and also between Kensworth and Caddington ; 
while the Stane Way runs straight along the eastern side 
of Stotfold, and continuing its line divides Astwick and 
part of Biggleswade from Edworth. The rule is often 



COMMUNICATIONS 



133 



disregarded because parts of the Roman road had gone to 
ruin before parishes were formed, but such a "natural" 
division is effected by nothing else in Bedfordshire but 
Roman roads and rivers. The Stane Way has on it, too, 
such place-names as Stratton and Chesterfield, and the 
presence of Lower Caldecote on the other side of the 
Ivel makes it quite likely that the Way crossed at 




Suspension Bridge, Bedford 



Biggleswade, as the modern road does, and recrossed at 
Sandy. And the very names long persisted, for a deed 
of 1433 concerns property at Edworth "abutting on 
highway called Stanyway," and the Watling Street 
occurs as a boundary of property from the eleventh 
century onwards. 

From the days of the Romans little serious road- 



134 BEDFORDSHIRE 

making or even good repairing was done till the end of 
the eighteenth century. Under the Saxon kings the 
four great highways (quatuor chemmi) were regarded 
as national roads. The "King's peace" extended upon 
them ; violence and outrage were held to be more serious 
there than elsewhere. Their maintenance was a burden 
on the neighbouring landowners, and in 1285 the Prior 
and burgesses of Dunstable were ordered to repair the 
royal roads passing through their town. Later the 
Hundreds were probably responsible for the local roads. 
In the reign of Edward III the Commissions of the Peace 
were first issued, and the ancient machinery of County 
and Hundred Courts gradually fell into disuse. The 
parishes were held responsible for the highways within 
their borders, and they could be brought to do their 
duty by "presentment" at Quarter Sessions. 

Of the details of movement upon these roads we 
only get chance glimpses. The third chapter of 
Macaulay's History gives a lively picture of English 
road-faring in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
and Bedfordshire was probably no exception. Pennant 
tells us that in 1740 the Chester stage did the journey 
from Dunstable to London in a day. The team consisted 
of "six good horses and sometimes eight." This meant 
starting two hours at least before daybreak during 
much of the year and often arriving late at night. He 
contrasts this with the improvements of forty years 
later. The direct road from Dunstable to Luton was 
made in 1784. Lysons speaks of the Bedford and 
Turvey road as out of repair, the Stagsden road as 



136 BEDFORDSHIRE 

impassable for carriages, and most of the private roads 
as bad at the beginning of the nineteenth century. 

Under a series of Acts passed in the eighteenth and 
nineteenth centuries many main roads had been given 
over to bodies of trustees, who were empowered to collect 
tolls from those who used the roads in order to provide 
a fund for their maintenance, as it was recognised that 
the localities through which the main roads passed did 
not supply any large fraction of the number of those 
who used them. The exaction of toll necessitated the 
use of the turnpike gates, and for the first time since 
Roman days, in England at least, scientific road- 
making attracted the attention of engineers. Under 
Telford and McAdam and their successors, gradient, 
curvature, material, and construction were considered 
and a new era of road-making began. But the toll 
system was found annoying and costly, and was 
abandoned, the last turnpike disappearing about twenty 
years ago. The Local Government Act of 1888 finally 
handed over the management of the main roads to the 
County Councils and that of 1894 transferred all other 
roads to District Councils, thereby abolishing the then 
existing Highway Boards. 

In coaching days Dunstable saw more coaches than 
any part of Bedfordshire; the number is said to have 
risen to eighty a day. At the beginning of the nineteenth 
century the journey to London only took three hours 
and fifty minutes. In 1782 a new road was made to 
avoid the steep ascent of Chalk Hill between Dunstable 
and HockHfTe, and in 1837, when the threat of the 



COMMUNICATIONS 



137 



coming railways had already reduced the number of 
coaches to twenty-eight a day, £10,000 was spent in 
cutting through Chalk Hill. But it was too late. The 
opening of the London and Birmingham Railway in 
1838 brought Dunstable coaching almost to an end; and 
in November, 1846, on the opening of the Bletchley to 




The "Bedford Times'' 
{One of the last coaches running from London) 

Bedford branch of the London and North-Western 
Railway, the "Bedford Times" coach ceased to run. 

The first of the great railway lines to connect London 
with England north of the Thames was the London and 
North-Western, and it provided Bedfordshire with a 
branch from Bletchley in 1846, and Dunstable with 
another from Leighton Buzzard in 1848. At that time 
the Midland had no line farther south than Leicester. 



138 BEDFORDSHIRE 

and made terms with the North-Western for the use of 
its line to London. In 1850 the Great Northern com- 
pleted its line from King's Cross to Peterborough, and 
wishing to keep the Midland from a direct approach of 
its own to London, encouraged that company to continue 
its main line through Bedford to Hitchin, and gave it 
generous running powers and conveniences at King's 
Cross. This extension was opened by 1858. In 1851 
the North-Western connected Oxford with Bletchley, 
and in 1862 a line was opened between Bedford and 
Cambridge, absorbing a small private line which Captain 
Peel had laid from Potton to Sandy. This the London 
and North-Western eventually took over. At last the 
Midland determined to continue their line direct to 
London, and in 1868 this was completed, the route 
through Luton being adopted. Luton was also joined 
to Dunstable by rail in 1858, and it is connected 
with Hatfield by a branch of the Great Northern. 
There is a branch of the Midland between Bedford 
and Northampton, and another from Kettering to 
Huntingdon skirts the extreme north of the county 
with a station at Kimbolton. But just as the two 
Roman trunk roads spread like open scissor-blades and 
left the north of Bedfordshire unheeded, so it was left 
by the Great Northern and North-Western, and even 
the advent of the Midland did little to fill the void. 

The water communications of Bedfordshire have 
now lost their importance. The Grand Junction Canal 
just touches the county at Leighton Buzzard, but the 
railways which drove off the coaches destroyed the 



140 BEDFORDSHIRE 

barge industry as well. In the seventeenth century, 
when the French system of locks had been introduced 
into England, the Ouse was made navigable from 
King's Lynn to Bedford and the Ivel to Biggleswade, 
and for two centuries they continued to bring the bulk 
of the heavy merchandise that the north and centre of 
the county imported. But soon after the opening of 
the railway routes to the north and to London the river 
traffic decayed. About twenty years ago the locks 
were again put into repair and there was a modest 
revival of traffic, but it did not last long. Within the 
last few years proposals have been made to restore the 
trade by the use of steam or motor-driven barges, but 
they have not met with much support. 

In connection with the rivers must be mentioned the 
repair and maintenance of the bridges. Mention of a 
bridge at Bedford occurs as early as 1188, when the 
Sheriff accounted to the Exchequer for money spent upon 
it. In 1258 we find record of a "mill by Biddenham 
Bridge," as Bromham Bridge was called till about a 
century ago. St Neots bridge is mentioned in the 
St Neots Cartulary as early as the first half of the 
thirteenth century, and Harrold Bridge already existed 
at the date of the Hundred Rolls of 1280. 

Bedford and Biddenham bridges both had chapels 
attached to them, That at Bedford was endowed 
with several houses and shops, three acres of land, and 
a small rent from other lands. This endowment may 
have been partly for maintenance and repair of the 
bridge. The chapel was dedicated to St Thomas the 



COMMUNICATIONS 



141 



Martyr and was apparently "his chapel at Bedford 
Bridge" given by Simon de Beauchamp to St John's 
Hospital about 1180-90. The chapel on Biddenham 
bridge was built in 1296 and intended, according to its 
licence in mortmain, for the convenience of travellers, 




Harrold Bridge and Causeway 



to provide them with an early mass and to serve as a 
refuge from thieves. Some of our bridges are very 
long, spanning a wide extent of meadows liable to be 
flooded. Harrold bridge is for this reason approached 
by a long causeway pierced by culverts. 



142 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



19. Administration and Divisions. 

The Shire was a sub-division of the kingdom for 
three purposes — national defence, maintenance of law 
and order, and finance. From 1322 Bedfordshire had 
to provide small numbers of men for service against the 
Scots or French, but it was organised for its own pro- 




Bedford County School or Elstow School 
{Founded in 1869, closed in 19 16) 



tection as early as the Danish invasion at the beginning 
of the eleventh century. The general management of 
the county for the purposes of Justice, Administration, 
and Taxation, may be divided roughly into three periods 
ending with the Local Government Act of 1888, which 




■ t Vf - .. 







144 BEDFORDSHIRE 

established the present system of County Councils. Of 
these periods the first ends with the Norman Conquest, 
the second with the Act of 1360 which appointed 
Commissioners (or Justices) of the Peace. Each county 
was at first presided over by an Ealdorman (replaced 
later by an Earl), but after the time of Canute a Shire- 
reeve or Sheriff took his place, and the connection 
between an Earl and a County became at last only 
titular. Although "Hundreds" were older than Shires, 
they formed a sub-division, and the Hundreds were 
made up of townships or "vills." Every freeman was 
bound to belong to a tithing, which, in Bedfordshire and 
the neighbouring Midlands, was a group of ten men 
headed by a tithing-man, not, as in some parts of 
southern England, a sub-division of area. There were 
Moots of the Hundred and Moots of the Shire. Meetings 
or Moots of the Hundred were held at stated times, 
and were attended by the parish priests and other 
representatives of the vills. They assessed upon the 
several townships their shares of the Hundred's pro- 
portion of the county-tax; made "presentments" or 
reports, of nuisances, illegalities, and offences; and 
settled such disputes as were within their competence. 
Every year the Hundred was visited by the Sheriff, who 
held his "view of frank-pledge," or inquiry as to whether 
every man was in a tithing, so that someone might 
be held answerable in case he offended. The moot or 
meeting of the Shire was also held in the county town 
at regular intervals, and in Saxon times it was presided 
over by the Sheriff and Bishop of the Diocese, It 



ADMINISTRATION AND DIVISIONS 145 

assessed upon the Hundreds their proportion of the 
county taxes, sat as a court of jurisdiction, and had 
presentments made to it by the Hundreds or by juries 
who had been sworn to hold "inquisitions." It was 
attended by the notables of the shire, and by the parish 
priests and other representatives of the townships. The 
Norman Conquest brought about one great change — 
the bishop and clergy ceased to take part in the admin- 
istration of the county. Otherwise the system described 
went on for a couple of centuries. About 1200 a fresh 
official — the Coroner — appears, with duties which remain 
almost unaltered to this day. He still holds a "quest" 
or enquiry, with a jury of neighbours, as to a death, 
if its cause is unknown or suspicious, or if it has 
occurred in prison, and as to any claims upon "treasure 
trove." There were originally two coroners for Bed- 
fordshire; now there is one for the county, a second for 
the Honor of Ampthill (a collection of villages lying 
mainly in Bedfordshire, but extending into Bucks), and 
a third for the borough of Bedford. 

Gradually the Hundreds did less business, and by 
the time of Edward III the parish system had become 
more generally organised. In 1360 the first Commission 
of the Peace was appointed, and from then till 1888 the 
Justices of the Peace were at once Magistrates and 
Administrators of the Shire. Presentments of offences 
were made to them at Quarter Sessions, as of old to the 
County Court, and their Petty Sessional Divisions have 
in some senses taken the place of the Hundreds. The 
parishes supplied the machinery for the management of 

r. -r 10 



146 BEDFORDSHIRE 

highways and other purposes. The two most important 
functions of the justices now are the administration of 
justice and, with the Standing Joint Committee, the 
management of the County Police. 

Poor Law legislation began in the time of Elizabeth. 
Parishes have been combined in Unions, under the 
jurisdiction of Guardians. Such Unions are not neces- 
sarily confined within county limits; two-thirds, for 
instance, of the parishes in the Leighton Buzzard Union 
are in Bucks. The name of the County Courts is mis- 
leading. They have districts of their own, and are in 
no way connected with Administration, or with the 
shire. By recent legislation parishes may elect a Parish 
Council, which has certain powers of self-government, 
and some more populous parishes or areas have more 
considerable powers as Urban Districts. Kempston, for 
instance, is divided into Kempston Rural with a Parish 
Council, and Kempston Urban with a District Council. 
Leighton Buzzard, Ampthill, and Biggleswade are all 
Urban Districts. 

Formerly Bedfordshire and Bedford were each repre- 
sented in Parliament by two members, but by the Act 
of 1885 the borough lost one member. The county has 
two Parliamentary Divisions : the Southern or Luton 
Division is roughly all that part of the county south of 
Ampthill, the Northern or Biggleswade Division contains 
the rest of the county. Each of these divisions returns 
a member to the House of Commons, and the Borough 
of Bedford a third. No other town in the shire 
has ever been separately represented in Parliament 



ADMINISTRATION AND DIVISIONS 147 

except Dunstable, which returned two members in 
1312. 

The Hundreds have now little but historical import- 
ance. They are nine in number: Barford, Biggleswade, 
Clifton, and Flitt, whose names sufficiently suggest 
their position; Manshead on the west as far north as 
Aspley Guise; Redburnstoke, from Cranneld and Elstow 
in the north to Maulden in the south; Wixamtree, 
between Redburnstoke and Flitt on the west and 
Biggleswade en the east ; Willey, mainly on the limestone 
in the north-west from Stagsden to Wymington; and 
Stodden, occupying that part of the county north of the 
Ouse unoccupied by Willey or Barford. 

The County Council took over the administration of 
the County in April 1889. There are sixty-eight mem- 
bers, elected by occupiers of buildings or land in the 
county, irrespective of sex. One-fourth of the members 
are Aldermen, who are elected by the other Councillors. 
The officials of the County Council include a Clerk (who 
is also Clerk of the Peace for the County), a Treasurer, 
Analyst, Surveyor, Secretary for Education, and 
Inspector of Weights and Measures. The County 
Coroner is elected, but the Coroner for the Honor of 
Ampthill is appointed by the Crown. The general 
business of county administration is in the hands of the 
Council, and concerns highways and bridges, education, 
lunatic asylums, contagious diseases (animals), pollution 
of rivers, parliamentary registration, and finance. 

The Justices hold their Court in general sessions four 
nmes a year at least (Quarter Sessions), and oftener if 



148 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



they think fit. They try criminal cases involving very 
serious penalties; but murder, bigamy, treason, forgery, 
and some others of the graver offences must go before 
the Judges of Assize. They also sit in Petty Sessions as 
courts of summary jurisdiction, to try minor offences 
without a jury. For this purpose the county is divided 
into seven divisions, severally named after the chief 




Town Hall, Bedford; formerly the Grammar School 



place in each : Ampthill, Bedford, Biggleswade, Leighton 
Buzzard, Luton, Sharnbrook, and Woburn. The Justices 
of the Peace also act as Licensing Authorities within 
their petty sessional divisions. 

The Poor Law Guardians have the control, under 
the direction of the Local Government Board, of all 
matters concerned with the administration of the Poor 



ADMINISTRATION AND DIVISIONS 149 

Law within the Union of Parishes which they represent. 
To the tax upon each parish levied for the purpose have 
been gradually added the taxes required for a number of 
other local purposes, with the result that the so-called 
Poor Rate is really a rate to meet the requirements 
both of the Poor Law authorities and other provinces 
of county administration with which the Poor Law 
guardians have nothing to do. A town with 50,000 
inhabitants may be constituted a County Borough, 
and is then independent of the administration and 
finance of the County Council, but there are none such 
at present in Bedfordshire. 

The Borough of Bedford has its own Coroner and 
its Justices of the Peace. When the latter sit in Quarter 
Sessions the Recorder of the Borough, appointed by the 
Crown, is the Judge of the Court. For general purposes 
of administration Bedford, Luton, and Dunstable are 
Municipal Corporations, consisting of Mayor, Town 
Councillors elected by the ratepayers, and Aldermen 
elected by the Councillors. 



20. The Roll of Honour. 

Bedfordshire, though not a large county, can claim 
a long list of distinguished names, of which a few only 
can be given here. We may begin with the clergy. 

Peter Bulkley, who succeeded his father in 1620 as 
Rector of Odell, sailed for Boston in Massachusetts in 
1635 an d founded the township of Concord. He was 



150 BEDFORDSHIRE 

its first minister, and his son one of the earliest Harvard 
graduates. John Donne the poet (1573-163 1) was 
Rector of Blunham for some time and the living was 
not a sinecure, though he held it with the Deanery of 
St Paul's. Isaac Walton has described his excellence as 
a preacher and Ben Jonson held him to be " the first 
poet in the world in some things." A younger con- 
temporary, but of a very different type, was William 
Dell, a Bedfordshire man by birth, and Rector of Yelden. 
He served as chaplain in Fairfax's army (1645-7), and 
was appointed Master of Gonville and Caius College, 
Cambridge, but will be most remembered as having 
invited John Bunyan to preach in his pulpit at Yelden. 
At the Restoration he lost his Mastership and his 
Rectory, and when he died four years later (1664), he 
was, by his own wish, buried in unconsecrated ground. 

Edward Stillingfleet (1635-99), who owed his nick- 
name of "The Beauty of Holiness" to the comeliness of 
his face and character, was not a Bedfordshire man, but 
became Rector of Sutton in 1657. Here he wrote his 
famous Origines Sacrae and the Eirenicon, a "Message 
of Peace," which, by the irony of circumstances, was 
published (1659) j ust before the actual arrest of John 
Bunyan at Lower Samsell. 

The lawyers and judges connected with Bedfordshire 
were generally either local magnates who were employed 
in early days by the Crown as "Justices Itinerant"; or 
successful lawyers who became possessed of estates in 
the county; or natives of Bedfordshire who rose to 
legal eminence. The Beauchamps, Cantilupes, Bray- 



THE ROLL OF HONOUR 151 

brooks, and Patteshalls afford examples of the first type 
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. William de 
Beauchamp of Bedford was a Baron of Exchequer under 
Henry III. It was the seizure of Henry de Braybrook 
after the Dunstable Sessions that led to the ruin of 
Fulk de Breaute and the destruction of Bedford 
Castle in 1224; and one of the Justices who had been 
sitting with him, but avoided capture, was Walter de 
Patteshall of Bletsoe, an ancestor both of our present 
King and of Lord St John of Bletsoe. 

Of the second type was William Inge, who in the 
thirteenth century acquired land in many counties. 
Among his manors was that of Weston, which has been 
called Weston Ing ever since. John Cockayne, too, 
Baron of Exchequer and Justice of Common Pleas in 
the fifteenth century, bought Hatley, known till then as 
Hatley Port, but since his time as Cockayne Hatley, 
and in the same century a son of the celebrated Chief 
Justice Gascoigne acquired Cardington by marrying a 
Pigott heiress. 

Sir Robert Catlin, Chief Justice of the Queen's 
Bench (1562-74) was born at Sutton, and died at the 
house he had built upon the site of Newenham Priory. 
The ruins of this house still stand upon the sewage-farm 
field. Among his descendants were Marlborough and 
the Spencers of Althorp. Sir Francis Crawley, a Justice 
of Common Pleas, was the head of a family long since, 
and still, settled at Luton. In 1636 he supported the 
right of the Crown to levy ship-money, and he was 
one of the Judges who decided against Hampden. He 



152 BEDFORDSHIRE 

married a Rotheram, and so probably acquired Someries, 
near Luton, where he lived till his death in 1649. 

Oliver St John of Keysoe (1 578-1673), a cousin of the 
St Johns of Bletsoe, was doubly connected by marriage 
with Cromwell and Hampden. He was Hampden's 
counsel in the ship-money case, and a strong supporter 
of the bill of attainder against Strafford. He became 
Chief Justice of Common Pleas in 1648. Though 
believed to be in Cromwell's confidence, he opposed 
the proceedings against the King. He died in 1673. 
Sir Samuel Brown, of Arlesey, was Oliver St John's first 
cousin. He was a Justice of the King's Bench, but 
resigned that office when the King was brought to trial. 

Sir George Carteret held Jersey for the King in 
the Civil War, became Treasurer of the Navy under 
Charles II, and bought the Haynes estate from Sir 
Samuel Luke in 1667. He was buried there in 1679 an( ^ 
two years later his grandson George was made Baron 
Carteret of Haynes. Lord Carteret was a remarkable 
man. After a youth of eager study at Westminster and 
at Oxford, he entered early into political life, served as 
Ambassador in Sweden and as Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs, and was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 
But the detail of his offices gives no measure of his 
powers, and very many of his contemporaries testify to 
his abilities. "When he dies," said Chesterfield, "the 
ablest leader in England dies." 

Sir Samuel Luke, a Puritan landowner of Cople and 
Haynes, had Samuel Butler in his service, probably in the 
capacity of clerk or secretary, and is said to be the 



THE ROLL OF HONOUR 153 

original of Hudibras. But, as many caricatures do, that 
amusing poem, which was written at Cople, appears to 
have exaggerated his physical disadvantages and foibles, 
and ignored his real qualities. He was for some time in 
command of the important post of Newport Pagnell, and 
showed great energy and courage. When the war was 
over he lived at Haynes, and Dorothy Osborn writes 
from Chicksands in 1653 "Of late, I know not how, 
Sir Sam hath grown so kind as to send to me for some 
things he desired out of this garden, and withal made 
the offer of what was in his, which I had reason to take 
for a high favour, for he is a nice florist." 

John Okey the Regicide was a London drayman who 
obtained the lease of Ampthill and Brogborough Parks, 
and represented the shire in Richard Cromwell's parlia- 
ment. He fled to Holland at the Restoration, was 
arrested, sent to England, and hanged at Tyburn in 
1662. 

John Howard, the philanthropist (1 726-1 790), though 
not actually Bedfordshire born, spent his childhood at 
his father's house at Cardington. When on a voyage his 
vessel was captured by a French privateer, and Howard 
experienced the miseries of a dungeon at Brest, an 
experience destined to bear fruit later. Returning to 
England he made Cardington his home, and became 
High Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1773. His official visits 
to the jails drew his attention to their abuses, and he 
devoted the remaining years of his life to a careful 
accumulation of facts illustrative of the conditions of 
prisoners, not only in Great Britain but throughout 




Statue of John Howard, Bedford 



THE ROLL OF HONOUR 155 

Europe. His private life at Cardington was devoted to 
philanthropy. He rebuilt every cottage upon his estate, 
had his household linen woven by the cottagers, and 
introduced new kinds of potatoes. "I am a plodder," 
he said, "who goes about to collect materials for men 
of genius to make use of." But Burke has judged 
him otherwise: — "as full of genius as of humanity." 

Samuel Whitbread (i 720-1 796) owned considerable 
estates at Cardington, was member for Bedford for many 
years, and by his will he founded the Bedford Infirmary. 
His son, Samuel Whitbread junior (1764-18 15), was also 
member for Bedford, from the year 1790 till his death. 
His grandson — also of the same name — successfully con- 
tested Bedford in no less than eleven elections, and held 
his seat till his resignation. He was connected with all 
the modern developments of the borough. 

James Howard (1 821-1889) was of a family settled 
in Bedford for at least two centuries, the son of an 
agricultural implement maker in the High Street. He 
built the "Britannia" works on the site of Caldwell Priory 
in 1856. He represented Bedford in Parliament from 
1868 to 1874 an d tne county from 1880 to 1885, helped 
to found the Farmers' Alliance, and was its President 
for many years. He used his Clapham estate for 
experiment, and published many of his results, and as 
long ago as 1869 tried to attract public attention to the 
manufacture of beetroot sugar in England. 

Sir Joseph Paxton (1801-1865) was born at Milton 
Bryant, the son of a small farmer, and educated at the 
Woburn grammar school. He began his career as a boy 




Sir Joseph Paxton 



THE ROLL OF HONOUR 157 

in the gardens of Sir Gregory Page-Turner at Battlesden 
and gave evidence of his abilities by laying out and 
constructing the large lake there. He attracted the 
attention of the Duke of Devonshire and was appointed 
gardener at Chatsworth, where he built the great con- 
servatory. In 1 85 1 he designed the vast glass building 







Sir William Harpur 



of the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, which was 
afterwards re-erected at Sydenham and is known 
throughout the world as the Crystal Palace. He was 
knighted and became M.P. for Coventry. 

Sir William Harpur (1506-1573) was born at Bedford, 
served as Sheriff in 1556-7, as Lord Mayor of London in 



158 BEDFORDSHIRE 

1 561-2, and was knighted during his mayoralty. He 
possessed, probably by inheritance, the land at the west 
end of St Paul's Square, on which the Town Hall now 
stands, and there, probably in 1548, he built a school 
house. In 1552 Edward VI granted a patent for the esta- 
blishment of a free and perpetual school in Bedford. In 
1564. Sir William bought 13 \ acres of land in Holborn 
for ^180, and two years later a deed between Sir William 
Harpur and his wife Alice of the one part, and the 
Corporation of Bedford of the other, attests the founda- 
tion by the Corporation of a free school in Bedford, in 
the school house "lately built by Sir W. Harpur," 
the appointment of Edmund Green of New College as 
its first master, and its endowment with the land and 
building then in use and the 13 J acres of land in Holborn. 
The latter then let at about [12: the income now received 
from the Bedford and London properties of the Harpur 
Trust amounts to /,i 8,000. 

Among famous women must be mentioned the 
daughter of Margaret Beauchamp, the heiress of Bletsoe, 
Lady Margaret Beaufort, who married Edmund Tudor, 
and whose son eventually became King as Henry VII. 
She was a woman of remarkable character and ability. 
She translated the Imitatio from the French, patronised 
Caxton and the early English printers, founded Professor- 
ships in Divinity at Oxford and Cambridge, a school at 
Wimborne, and the Colleges of Christ and St John at 
Cambridge. 

At Houghton House, whose ruins are still so familiar, 
lived Mary, the sister of Sir Philip Sidney and the 



THE ROLL OF HONOUR 



159 



mother of William Earl of Pembroke. Francis Osborn, 
a Bedfordshire man, who served for a time as Master of 
the Horse to her son, speaks of her wit and beauty, 
and quotes Ben Jonson's famous epitaph : — 

Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother, 
Death ! ere thou hast slain another 
Learn'd, and fair, and good, as she, 
Time shall throw a dart at thee. 




Chicksands Priory 

While Francis Osborn was busy at Oxford writing 
political tracts that have been long forgotten, his niece, 
Dorothy Osborn, was tending his brother's last years at 
Chicksands, and writing to her lover the wonderful 
letters that have made every reader her friend. Seventy- 



160 BEDFORDSHIRE 

seven letters which she wrote to Sir William Temple 
between 1652 and 1654 contain a weekly record of her 
life. They depict with charming and artless verve her 
devoted attendance upon her father, her resolute loyalty 
to her lover in face of her brother's opposition, whimsical 
accounts of other suitors, her intercourse with neigh- 
bours and friends, her delight in those long French 
romances which were so fashionable in her day, and the 
quiet charm of her country home, with its garden and 
river, and the common beyond it. The house still 
stands, a little altered, the common is now enclosed 
within the park, but keeps its name, and in the garden, 
between it and the common, still flows the little river, 
and its blue forget-me-nots appeal to us to remember 
Dorothy Osborn. 

Catherine of Aragon lived at Ampthill Castle for 
about a year, leaving before or in the early part of 
1534. The divorce was pronounced at Dunstable in 
May 1533, and in May 1534 she was already at Kim- 
bolton, where she died in 1536. 

Among statesmen Bedfordshire can claim more than 
one illustrious example in the last four centuries; the 
Russell family being especially conspicuous. "Imagine 
always," writes Sir Thomas Wyatt, " that you are in the 
presence of some honest man that you know, such as Sir 
John Russell, and remember what shame it were afore him 
to do naughtily"; and he goes on to define the honesty 
of which he speaks as "wisdom, gentleness, soberness, 
desire to do good, friendliness to get the love of many." 
It was not till late in his career that John Russell, Earl 



THE ROLL OF HONOUR 



161 



of Bedford (c. i486, d. 1555), who rose rapidly to high 
offices of state under Henry VIII, and was a man 
of very fine character, became closely associated with 



a 



■4P 





William, first Duke of Bedford 

Bedfordshire, though he had long since married the 
widow of Sir John Broughton of Toddington. Henry VIII 
made him a Baron : it was in the reign of Edward VI 

C. B. II 



162 BEDFORDSHIRE 

that he obtained the grant of Woburn Abbey and the 
Earldom of Bedford. 

His great grandson, Francis, the fourth Earl of Bed- 
ford (1593-1641), held so important a position in the 
eyes of both King and Parliament that Clarendon 
regards his death as one of the immediate causes of the 
Civil War. One great service he did to the country 
raised an imperishable monument to himself. He was 
chief "undertaker" of the scheme for draining the Fens, 
and the work was brought to completion by his son 
William, the first Duke, late in the century. The 
" Bedford Level " commemorates the part they took in 
the achievement. 

William, Lord Russell (1639-1683), third son of the 
fifth earl, was obnoxious to the Court because of his 
uncompromising support of the Exclusion Bill. As an 
accomplice in the Rye House Plot he was arrested, and 
though no complicity was proved against him he was 
executed 21st July, 1683. The sympathy and appre- 
hension aroused by his death contributed not a little to 
the fall of the Stuart dynasty. 

John, fourth Duke of Bedford (1710-1771), took a 
conspicuous part in public affairs during the middle 
years of the eighteenth century, as First Lord of the 
Admiralty, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Secretary of 
State, and Ambassador to France. He was an indus- 
trious administrator, an able and an honourable man, 
"a man of inflexible honesty and love for his country," 
though his reputation still suffers from the perverse 
imputations of the Letters of Junius. 



THE ROLL OF HONOUR 163 

John Russell, first Earl Russell (i 792-1 876), was 
doubly a Bedfordshire man, His father, Lord John 
Russell, was brother of the fifth Duke of Bedford, and 
his mother was a Byng, daughter of Lord Torrington of 
Southill. Though born in London, Woburn Abbey was 
his home for nearly twenty years. He entered Parliament 
in 181 3 and became an ardent champion of Parliamentary 
reform. From 1820 to 1832 he lived at the Hundreds 
Farm at Woburn, where he had his fine library. He 
had charge of the Reform Bill in the House of Commons 
(1830-2), was Prime Minister 1846-52, became Earl 
Russell 1 861, retired from political life in 1866, and died 
1876. 

Two Bedfordshire men at least have earned fame in 
war. Sir Nigel Loring, who came of an old family settled 
at Chalgrave, was a comrade of the Black Prince, and 
one of the original members of the Order of the Garter 
He fought at the siege of Calais, and at the battle of 
Poictiers. There are in Chalgrave Church two figures 
of Lorings as knights in armour, and one of these is 
undoubtedly his. Admiral George Byng of Southill won 
the naval victory over the Spaniards off Cape Passaro 
in 171 8, and was created Baron Southill and Viscount 
Torrington. It was his son, John, who was the famous 
and unfortunate Admiral Byng who was shot in 1757 for 
failure to save Minorca. Both are buried at Southill, 
and the inscription over the son's tomb begins: — "To 
the Eternal Disgrace of the British Nation..." 

The county has been neither the birthplace nor the 
home of any of the greater English poets, though it can 



164 BEDFORDSHIRE 

claim some of minor note. George Gascoigne (d. 1577), 
of Cardington, was M.P. for Bedford from 1557 to 1559, 
and published numerous lyrics, elegies, and other verses 
and translations. Sir Sidney Lee points out that we owe 
to him the earliest extant comedy in English prose, and 
the earliest English critical essay on versification. Bed- 
fordshire has two poets laureate of no great distinction. 
Elkanah Settle (1648-1724), born at Dunstable, where 
his father was a barber and innkeeper, held the post of 
Poet to successive Lord Mayors for many years, devised 
their pageants and shows, and died in the Charterhouse. 
Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718) was born at Little Barford. 
The Fair Penitent and Jane Shore are the best known of 
his plays, and we owe to him the earliest critical edition 
of Shakespeare. 

John Bunyan's fame is such that it is not necessary 
to do more than note the epochs of his career. He was 
born at the east end of the parish of Elstow where it 
abuts upon Harrowden, in the fields of the farm still 
known as Bunyan's End. The cottage stood on the 
north side of the stream, but on ground which is now 
on the south of it, as the brook has been straightened : 
the field north of the stream is still called Pesselynton, 
as it was even before his day. His family were already 
living there in 1327, and the name occurs in the neigh- 
bouring village of Wilstead in 1199. He was baptised 
at Elstow, 30th November, 1628. His father was a 
brasier, and he was brought up to the same trade. 
At the age of sixteen he joined Col. Cockayne's Company 
of the Newport Pagnell garrison under Sir Samuel 



}66 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



Luke. In the muster rolls, certified by Henry 
Whitbread, muster-master, his name occurs for three 
years and a half, beginning with 30th November, 1644. 




John Bunyan 



He married about the time at which his military period 
ended (1648) and settled as a brasier at a cottage in the 
High Street of Elstow of which the present "Bunyan's 
Cottage" is a reconstruction. The spiritual struggle 



THE ROLL OF HONOUR 167 

narrated in Grace Abounding belongs to his life in 
that cottage. In 1650 the congregation now known as 
the Bunyan Meeting was formed under the ministry of 
John Gifford. In 1653 the Corporation presented John 
GifTord to the living of St John's Church, episcopal 
ordination not being at the time necessary. In 1655 
Bunyan joined this congregation, and he removed to 
Bedford in 1654 or J ^55- His first book was published 
at Newport Pagnell (1656) and arose from a controversy 
with Quakers. He was soon known as a preacher in 
Bedford and the neighbourhood, and was invited by 
William Dell to preach in his pulpit at Yelden on the 
Christmas Day of 1659, tne y ear m which he married 
his second wife. On 12th November, 1660, he was 
arrested for unlicensed preaching at Lower Samsell in 
Westoning parish, and the place of his arrest may still 
be identified in a field between Lower Samsell and Har- 
lington. He was committed to the County Gaol which 
then stood on the north of the open space at the High 
Street end of Silver Street, Bedford. His imprisonment 
was sometimes lax and sometimes strict, and lasted till 
the publication of the Act of Indulgence, March 1672. 
During that period he published Grace Abounding and 
eight other books. In January, 1672, Bunyan was 
elected minister of the Congregation, and in the following 
May a barn in an orchard in Mill Street was licensed as 
a place of Congregational Meeting. On the site of that 
barn the present Meeting House stands. Bunyan was 
again imprisoned for about a year, from 1675 to 1676, by 
the borough authorities of Bedford in the town gaol 



168 BEDFORDSHIRE 

upon the bridge, and it was there that he wrote the first 
part of the Pilgrim' 's Progress, which was published in 
1678. He preached his last sermon in London, 19th 
August, 1688; died, after ten days' illness, on the last 
day of the same month, and was buried in the cemetery 
at Bunhill Fields. 



21. THE CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 
OF BEDFORDSHIRE. 

(The figures in brackets after each name give the population in 
191 1, and those at the end of each section are references to 
the pages in the text.) 

Ampthill (2270), 8 m. S. of Bedford, on the sand, with 
stations on M.R. and L. and N.W.R., is an Urban District. The 
Castle, now destroyed, was the residence of Catherine of Aragon 
during the divorce proceedings. Ampthill House, built in 1694, 
has a lime avenue, the Alameda, reputed to be one of the finest 
in England, and famous oaks of great age, some measuring over 
36 feet in circumference. Church (St Andrew) mainly Perp. 
(pp. 18, 24, 32, 34, 60, 65, 67, 73, 83, 118, 127, 145, 146, 147, 
H8, i53, 160.) 

Arlesey (2046), 4 m. S. of Biggleswade, a straggling village 
some two miles in length with G.N.R. stations at each end, has 
engineering, Portland cement, and large brick and tile works. 
The Eltonbury earthworks are in the neighbourhood. Church 
of St Peter remarkable for its massive western tower, built in 
1 187. (pp. 70, 72, 152.) 

Aspley Guise (1277), 2 m. N. by W. of Woburn, stands 
high (about 400 ft.) on the sand, among the firs, and is a health 
resort. The church (St Botolph), partly Dec, has been recently 
restored, (pp. 12, 127, 147.) 

Barford, Great (726), a large village on the Ouse 5^ m. 
N.E. of Bedford, has a fine 15th cent, bridge of 17 arches. 

Barford, Little (151) on the Hunts border 3^ m. S. of 
St Neots. Church (St Denys) has a Norman arch to S. door. 
In a cottage still standing Nicholas Rowe was born in 1674. 
(pp. 103, 147, 164.) 



170 BEDFORDSHIRE 

Barton-in-the-Clay (746), 6 m. N. of Luton, stands just 
north of the chalk escarpment half-way between Luton and 
Ampthill. It once belonged to Ramsey Abbey. The church 
(St Nicholas) has a fine Perp. roof of chestnut wood, but is chiefly 
E.E. and Dec. It contains some early brasses, and the chancel 
is paved with 14th cent, tiles, (pp. 12, 15, 16, 63, 71.) 

Battlesden (66), 3! m. S. of Woburn. Church (St Peter) 
is chiefly Perp. Sir Joseph Paxton was born here. (p. 132.) 

Bedford (39,183) the county town, 49 m. from London on 
the Ouse, is served by the Midland and London and North 
Western Railways. Is a municipal and parliamentary borough, 
head of a petty sessional division and county court district. The 
town lies mainly north of the river, and though showing few 
signs of antiquity is bright, clean, and well planted. The Ouse 
was once navigable to King's Lynn, but is so no longer, though 
there is much boating, and regattas are held. There are some 
interesting churches. St Peter's has Saxon details in the tower, 
a Norman S. door, and still shows traces of having been set on 
fire by the Danes in 1010. St Paul's was rebuilt in the 13th 
cent., and has been much altered at many subsequent periods. 
St Mary's is mainly Perp. Behind the Swan Inn is the site of 
Bedford Castle, destroyed in 1224. Bedford Grammar School 
dates from 1552, and is now one of the leading Public Schools, 
owing its prosperity in great measure to the benefactions of Sir 
William Harpur its founder. In 1853 the Commercial School 
was separated from it and was re-named the Modern School in 
1877. The High and Modern Schools for Girls were established 
on the same foundation in 1882. 

There are large iron-works (built partly on the site of Caldwell 
Priory), agricultural implement works, automobile and various 
other manufactories, and breweries, and pillow lace is still made. 
From Bedford eastward to the site of Newenham or Newnham 
Priory the river banks have been laid out with gardens and 
ornamental walks. On St Peter's Green is the bronze statue of 



CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 171 

Bunyan by Boehm, presented by the Duke of Bedford, and 
Gilbert's statue of John Howard stands on Market Hill. (pp. 2, 
3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 17, 21, 22, 27, 28, 44, 45, 53, 58, 65, 67, 70, 72, 
74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 91, 92, 97, 
98,99, 101, 103, in, 113, 115, 118, 119, 126, 127, 128, 133, 
134, 137, 138, 140, 141, 142, 143, i45, 146, 148, 149, 151, i.S4, 
155, i57, 158, 164, 165, 167.) 




The Modern School. Bedford 

{The old Grammar School and the Girls' Modern School 
in the distance) 

Biddenham (451), on the Ouse 2 m. W. of Bedford, is 
chiefly noteworthy for the finds of extinct mammalia in its 
gravels, which have also yielded a number of palaeolithic imple- 
ments. The church of St James has a Norman chancel arch, 
(pp. 22, 68, 70, 91, 94, 96, 140, 141-) 

Biggleswade (5375), a town ioi m. S.E. of Bedford, on 
the Ivel, in flat country much devoted to market gardening. 
There are fairs at Easter and on Whit Monday, (pp. 6, 12, 18, 
53 , 54, 67, 70, 131, 132, i33, !4Q, 147, 148-) 



172 BEDFORDSHIRE 

Bletsoe (312), a village 6 m. N.N.W. of Bedford, by the 
Ouse. The cruciform church of St Mary is chiefly of Dec. 
period, and contains some fine monuments of the St John 
family. A portion of Bletsoe Castle still remains as a farm 
house. Pillow lace is made. The Falcon Inn was a favourite 
resort of Edward FitzGerald. (pp. 82,83, 126, 127, 151, 152, 158.) 

Blunham (603), a large village on gravel soil on the Ivel 
near its junction with the Ouse, 7 m. E. of Bedford. The 
church (St James), which belonged to St Edmund's Abbey, is partly 
Norman. John Donne was once its Rector. There is a good 
deal of market gardening, (p. 150.) 

Bolnhurst (184), a small village 7 m. N. by E. of Bedford, 
is chiefly noticeable for its church (St Dunstan) which has a fine 
carved screen and a mural painting of St Christopher, (pp. 11, 
16, 123.) 

Bromham (350), an attractive village 2^ m. N.W. of 
Bedford, on the Ouse. The Hall was held by the Royalists and 
captured by the Parliamentary troops. The church (St Owen) 
built in 13th cent, has some interesting monuments, (pp. 17, 22, 
34, 91, 92, 96, 140.) 

Caddington (1508), a village on the outskirts of Luton till 
lately partly in Herts, with an interesting church (All Saints') 
showing Norman, E.E., and Perp. work. In the neighbourhood 
is an ancient British camp. (pp. 9, 14, 15, 27, 34, 72, 93, 96, 
131, 132.) 

Campton (415), a small village 6 m. S.W. of Biggleswade 
where many Anglo-Saxon and Roman antiquities have been 
found. The Manor House was attacked by the Parliamentarians 
in 1645. Robert Bloomfield the poet is buried here. (pp. 113, 
121, 122.) 

Cardington (423), a well-wooded and pretty village i\ m. 
S.E. of Bedford, once the residence of John Howard the philan- 
thropist. The church, mainly modern, has a Norman arch in 



CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 173 

the tower. Cardington Cross was the work of Chantrey. 
Straw-plait and pillow-lace making, once large industries, have 
almost ceased to exist, (pp.94, * 2 o, 122, 123, 151, 153, ^55) 164-) 

Carlton (314), Chellington (113). Contiguous villages 
9 m. N.W. of Bedford on the Ouse. The churches of both 
show interesting E.E. and Dec. work. (pp. in, 113, Il 5-) 

Chalgrave (573), 3! m. N. of Dunstable, has an ancient 
church (All Saints') of various periods, with two good altar 
tombs, (pp. 99, Io8 > *3 2 > l6 3-) 

Chellington (113), see Carlton. 

Chicksands Priory (39^ is now a P arish > annexed to 
Campton. The Gilbertine priory was founded about 1150, and 
much remains of the original buildings, notably the cloisters 
of the quadrangle, (pp. 125, 153, 159.) 

Clapham (748), a village 2 m. N.W. of Bedford, remark- 
able for its church of St Thomas a Becket, which has a celebrated 
Saxon tower 82 ft. in height. The two lower sections are very 
early work, the third somewhat later. The main part of the 
church was rebuilt in 1861 by Sir Gilbert Scott, (pp. 70, 9 2 > 
98, 101, 115, "7j j 55-) 

Cockayne Hatley (no), a little village on the extreme 
E. border of the county 2% m. E. of Potton, has a 14th cent, 
church, which is especially noteworthy for its profusion of 
beautiful carved woodwork of the stalls and chancel, etc., 
brought from the Abbey of Alne, near Charleroi. (pp. 117, 15O 

Cople (377), a village 4 m. E. of Bedford, with a good 
church (All Saints') mainly E.E. and Perp. with two altar tombs 
and several brasses. Samuel Butler wrote his Hudibras at Wood 
End House, (pp. 96, 115, i5 2 > x 53-) 



174 BEDFORDSHIRE 

Cranfield (1199), a large village on the Bucks border 8 m. 
S.W. of Bedford, with an E.E. and Perp. church, dedicated to 



Dunstable Priory 

St Peter and St Paul, which once belonged to Ramsey Abbey, 
(pp. 16, 44, 96, 103, 147.) 



CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 175 

Dean (342), a village at the extreme N. of the county, 4 m. 
W. of Kimbolton, divided into Nether and Upper Dean. The 
church (All Hallows'), chiefly Dec. and Perp., has a very fine 
carved roof. 

Dunstable (8057), a large market town and municipal 
borough in the south of the county 5 m. W. of Luton, on L. and 
N.W.R. and G.N.R. It stands on the site of a Roman town 
where Watling Street crosses the Icknield Way. Henry I 
founded here a Priory of Augustinian Canons, a portion of which 
still remains as the parish church of St Peter, which shows very 
fine Norman work in the nave and W. doorway, in addition to 
the rich E.E. Many kings and great officials stayed in the 
town. Before the days of railways it was a great coaching 
centre, and at one time was the headquarters of the straw-pla' 
industry. There are now large paper and engineering works, 
lime works, etc. Dunstable is on the edge of the chalk and in 
the neighbourhood on the downs are many relics of prehistoric 
man; notably "Maiden Bower," a British Camp, 10 acres in 
area,' surrounded by a circular vallum about 10 ft. high; and 
five round barrows, as well as hut circles. Elkanah Settle was 
born here in 1648. (pp. 6, 7, 9, I2 > "4, *5, 18, 34, 59, 60, 61, 
64, 70, 71, 74, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 84, 95,96, 103, 104, 105, 108, 
126, 129, 130, 131, U4, 136, i37, i38, i49, 151, 160, 164.) 

Eaton Bray (979), a village 4 m. W. of Dunstable, has a 
o-ood church (St Mary the Virgin) with E.E. nave arcades and 
font, and very fine 13th cent, ironwork in the S. door, recalling 
that of Queen Eleanor's screen in Westminster Abbey, (pp. 9, 
55, 105, 107, 108, 109.) 

Eaton Socon (2319^ close to St Neots, on the Hunts 
border, lies on the Ouse, which is here crossed by a bridge built 
in 1 5 8 9 from the ruins of St Neots Priory. The parish com- 
prises a number of hamlets, of which Bushmead still shows the 



176 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



refectory of its ancient priory (Augustinian). The church of 
Eaton Socon (St Mary) is mainly Perp. with a good rood-screen. 
There is much market gardening, (pp. 4, 9, n, 16, 52, 99, 1 13.) 

ElstOW (499), a village 1 m. S. of Bedford. John Bunyan 
was born here in 1628. The church is part of the nave of a 



■HK 




Bunyan's Cottage, Elstow 

Benedictine nunnery and is very interesting, containing early 
Norman work, some fine E.E., and a noteworthy brass of the 
last Abbess, Elizabeth Hervey. On the village green is a large 
half-timbered building and ruins of a Jacobean house adjoin the 
church, (pp. 96, 103, no, 115, 124, 126, 147, 164, 166.) 

Felmersham (345), a village on the Ouse 7 m. N.W. of 
Bedford, notable for its church (St Mary), perhaps the most 
interesting in the county, a cruciform E.E. building with fine 



CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 177 

central tower and a remarkable Perp. rood-screen. (pp. 21, 94, 
106, 108, 109, 113, 115, 117, 128.) 

Flitton (463), a village ^\ m. S.E. of Ampthill, on the 
Flitt, is, with its hamlet Greenfield, mainly devoted to market 
gardening. Its church of St John Baptist, late Perp., is noteworthy 
for the attached mausoleum of the De Grey family with fine 
monuments dating from the 16th cent. (pp. 96, 113.) 

Flitwick (1424), 2% m. S. of Ampthill, on the Flitt. The 
church has a Norman doorway. Ruscox manor has been bought 
by the County Council for small holdings, (pp. 6, 18, 19, 32, 
53, 68, 99.) 

Goldington (967), a village on the eastern suburbs of 
Bedford, once the site of Newenham Priory. Near by is 
" Risinghoe Castle," a high mound, probably the remains of a 
burh, dominating the river. 

Gravenhurst (377), a civil parish comprising Upper and 
Lower Gravenhurst, lying some 12 m. S.E. of Bedford. At 
the former St Mary's church, mainly Perp., has a good Norman 
chancel arch, and in a church with similar dedication at the 
latter there is a Dec. rood-screen and an early brass to Sir 
Robert de Bilhemore. (pp. 34, 72.) 

Harrold (851), a village 10 m. N.W. of Bedford, on the 
Ouse, with an interesting church, Trans. Norman, E.E. and Dec, 
and an octagonal market-house, (pp. ir, 22, 67, 108, 140, 141.) 

Haynes (Hawnes) (676), a village 6 m. S.E. of Bedford, 
chiefly noteworthy from the seat, Haynes Park, which in 1667 
came into the possession of Sir George Carteret the Royalist, 
(pp. 96, 122, 152, 153.) 

Higham Gobion (76), a small village on the Herts 
border, once the residence of Stephen Castell, the learned author 
of the Lexicon Heptaglotton. Many Roman antiquities have been 
found in the neighbourhood, (pp. 82, 96, in.) 

c. b. 1^ 



178 BEDFORDSHIRE 

Houghton Conquest (535), a village 3 m. N. of 
Ampthill ; the church has a very large fresco of St Christopher, 
(pp. 83, 123, 158.) 

Houghton Regis (1369), a large village 1 m. N. of 
Dunstable, with a good Dec. church containing a fine Norman 
font. The straw-plait industry is still carried on. (p. 15.) 

Husborne Crawley (379), 13 m. N.E. of Woburn. The 
experimental farm of the Royal Agricultural Society is mainly in 
this parish, (p. 51.) 

Hyde (649), a civil parish formed in 1896, partly from 
Luton, with additions in 1906 of portions of Harpenden in Herts. 
The fine seat, Luton Hoo, is in the parish, and Someries (1448), 
of which the gateway and some other remains still exist. 

Kempston (5349), a large parish and village contiguous with 
Bedford on the S.W. with an increasing population. Here, in 
the extensive gravel pits, many palaeoliths have been found and, 
some years ago, large Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon cemeteries 
which yielded a great number of relics. The church (All Saints') 
is Norman with a Dec. nave. (pp. 18,44, 55, 68, 92, 94, 97, 98, 
103.) 

Kensworth (528), a small village about 2 miles S. by E. 
of Dunstable, of which the greater part was in Herts until 1897. 
The church of St Mary shows a good deal of Norman work, 
(pp. 9, 12, 14, 15, 26, 27, 42, 93, 96, 103, 131, 132.) 

Knotting (120), a village on the Northants border 10 111. 
N. by W. of Bedford, chiefly of interest for its church of 
St Margaret, parts of which are Norman, the remainder of nave 
and chancel E.E. (pp. 11, 103.) 

Leagrave (1270), 2^ m. N.W. of Luton, of which it is 
practically a suburb. Waulud's Bank, an old British camp, is 
here, and the Icknield Way crosses it. (pp. 14, 74, 95, 129.) 




Market Cross, Leighton Buzzard 



12 — 2 



180 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



Leighton Buzzard (6782), an old town on the Bucks 
border, 20 m. S.S.W. of Bedford, on the Ousel, with large stock 
and wool fairs. The chief industry is sand and gravel digging. 
The church (All Saints') is cruciform and mainly E.E., with a 
fine tower and spire. The market cross, dating from the beginning 
of the 14th cent., is now a good deal restored. Many Saxon 
antiquities have been found at Dead-man's Slade in the neigh- 
bourhood. There are some modern engineering works, (pp. 3, 
9, 11, 18, 68, 84, 109, in, 115, 116, 137, 138, 146, 148.) 




Luton Parish Church 

Limbury and Biscot (2242), once hamlets of Luton, were 
formed into a parish in 1896. Limbury may be the " Lygean- 
burh " of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. " Bishopscote " was con- 
ferred by King Offa on St Alban's Abbey in 791. Various 
Roman and pre-Roman remains have been discovered, (p. 74.) 



Luton (49,978), a large municipal borough in the south of 
the county near the Herts border, 3 1 m. from London, and 9 m 




Canopied Font, St Mary's, Luton 



182 BEDFORDSHIRE 

S.W. of Hitchin. It lies on the Lea in a hollow surrounded by 
low chalk downs, a busy town, the largest in the county, the 
centre of the straw-hat industry, and extensive dye works in 
connection with it, as well as various factories. The cruciform 
church of St Mary, one of the finest in the county, has much 
good E.E. work, and a remarkable canopied 14th cent, font of 
great interest. There are also some good tombs. The Plait 
Hall, for the use of the plait dealers, is recent, (pp. 4, 7, 9, 14, 
44, 53, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 7*» 7*» 74, 75, 80, 81, 96, 
97, 117, 126, 127, 128, 134, 135, 138, 146, 148, 149, 151, 155.) 

Marston Moreteyne (1025), a village 4 m. N.W. of 
Ampthill, of interest for its church (St Mary), E.E. and Perp., 
with its very massive detached tower. There is a moated 
manor house near. (pp. 115, 121, 123.) 

Meppershall (610), a village about 4 m. N.W. of Hitchin. 
The church (St Mary) stands on high ground and has a very 
extensive view. It is cruciform, and the tower and part of the 
transepts are Norman. St Thomas's Chapel about 1 mile distant, 
now used as a barn, has a Norman doorway and two elegant 
Dec. windows. " The Hills," near the church, are either the 
remains of a moot-hill or a small burh. (pp. 10, 99, 102, 103, 
109, 115.) 

Millbrook (201) standing on high ground, and dominating 
the Bedford valley, claims to be the prettiest village in the county. 
The church contains busts of Lord and Lady Holland by West- 
macott. (p. 16.) 

Milton Bryant (199), a little village 4.% m. S.E. of Woburn 
Sands station, has a small Norman church (St Peter) now much 
modernised, containing a monument by Chantrey. (p. 155.) 

Northill (1292), a village and large parish 4 m. W.N.W. of 
Biggleswade, with several hamlets, has a fine dark red sandstone 



CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 183 

church rebuilt about 1400. The hamlet of Ickwell, built round 
a green with a maypole in the centre, is unusual, (pp. 96, 111.) 

Oakley (330), a village on the Ouse 4'm. N.W. of Bedford. 
The church of St Mary is mainly E.E. The rood-screen is 
now in the aisle as the organ loft. Pillow lace is still made, 
(pp. 23, 113, 117.) 

Odell (252), a village 9 m. N.W. of Bedford, on the Ouse, 
has a good Perp. church (All Saints') with the rood-screen still 
existing, and a fine Jacobean pulpit, with hour-glass, and some 
good glass. Of Odell Castle considerable traces remain, (pp. 67, 
99, 117, 127, 149.) 

Pavenham (308), in a bend of the Ouse 5 m. N.W. of 
Bedford, lies in a hilly and wooded district. The church 
(St Peter) though small is interesting, with a broach spire, a 
widening nave and transept, and much carved oak. Mat and" 
basket making and rush-plaiting are carried on. (pp. 67, 94.) 

Pertenhall (237), on the N. border of the county 3 m. S. 
of Kimbolton, has an interesting broach-spired church, with 
Trans. Norman arches in nave, a rich rood-screen, and monu- 
ments, (pp. 108, 113, 115.) 

Poddington (461), a village 3 m. S. of Irchester, has a fine 
church (St Mary) with Norman and E.E. nave arcade, an E.E. 
tower with rich octagonal E.E. spire, and a Norman font. 
Roman remains have been found in the neighbourhood, (pp. 13, 
22, 99, 103, 117.) 

Potton (2156), an ancient market town on the eastern 
border on the L. and N.W.R. to Cambridge, a market gardening 
centre. There are engineering works, fell-mongering and parch- 
ment industries, mills, and a brewery. The church has a Norman 
font. (pp. 7, 11, 16, 32, 67, 73, 138.) 



184 BEDFORDSHIRE 

Renhold (396), a pretty village 3 m. N.E. of Bedford with 
a church (All Saints') containing some monuments, and an altar 
tomb with brasses. On high ground above the Ouse are some 
Danish (?) earthworks. 

Ridgmont (Ridgmount or Rougemont) (540), a village 
1 1 m. S.S.W. of Bedford, where is an experimental fruit farm. 
By Brogborough farmhouse (17th cent.) are earthworks, (pp. 15, 
16, 51, 99, 115.) 

Roxton (396), a village 4^ m. S.W. from St Neots, near 
the junction of the Ivel with the Ouse, the vicarage annexed to 
Great Barford. The church (St Mary) is Dec. and Perp. and 
has an altar tomb to Roger Hunt, Speaker in 1420. Chawston 
and Colesden are hamlets. 

Salford (136), a small village 2 m. N. of Woburn Sands 
station on the Bucks border, with a very interesting Early Dec. 
church, with an open belfry of oak placed outside the west end, 
and three altar tombs, (p. 1 1 1.) 

Sandy (3377), a very large village, 3 m. N. of Biggleswade 
at the junction of the G.N.R. and L. and N.W.R., on the Ivel, 
situated under the range of sand hills. Owing to its soil and 
railway conveniences it has become a great market and other 
gardening centre. It is not now thought to be the Roman Salinae, 
but " Galley Hill " and " Chesterfield " are undoubtedly the 
remains of Roman Camps. " Caesar's Camp " was probably a 
British stronghold, and the earthworks at Sandy Place possibly 
Danish. Many Roman relics have at different times been found. 
The cruciform church of St Swithin has a monument to Captain 
Peel. Beeston, Girtford, Seddington, and Stratford are hamlets, 
(pp. 6, 11, 12, 18, 44, 53, 68, 69, 70,95, 96, 131, 132, 133, 138.) 



CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 185 

Sharnbrook (7.55), a large and pretty village on the Ouse, 
with a station on the Midland line, 8 m. N.W. of Bedford. 
The church is Early Dec. and Perp. Pillow lace is made. Roman 
remains have been found in the neighbourhood, (pp. u, 17, 21, 
22, 148.) 

Shefford (842), a small market town on the Ivel 6 m. S.W. 
of Biggleswade on the Midland Ry., with very wide streets. 
Roman relics of unusual interest have been found here and at 
Stanfordbury near by. (pp. 15, 16, 34, 53, 60, 96, 97, 98.) 

Shillington (1588), a large village 5 m. N.W. of Hitchin ; 
part of the parish is in Herts' administration. The church 
(All Saints') stands on high ground and is one of the best in 
the county — an early Dec. building, with some Trans. Norman, 
a fine screen, and two curious square battlemented turrets, 
(pp. 96, in.) 

Silsoe (561), a small parish midway between Bedford and 
Luton, contains the large seat Wrest Park. There are good 
1 8th cent, gardens, but the house was rebuilt on a new site in 
the 19th cent., converted into a hospital, and burnt in 19 16. 

Southill (989), a village 3 m. S.W. of Biggleswade, is 
chiefly noticeable for Southill House and Park, the birthplace and 
also the burial place of Admiral Byng, and now the seat of the 
Whitbreads. Roman remains have been found in the neighbour- 
hood, (pp. 16, 53, 163.) 

Stevington (Steventon) (479), a pleasant village on the 
Ouse 5 m. N.W. of Bedford, with an interesting church, with 
a tower of which a good part is pre-Norman, an Early Dec. nave 
arcade, and a " Holy Well " below the churchyard. There is a 
good village cross. Pillow lace making and rush-plaiting are 
carried on. (pp. 32, 82, 114, 115.) 

12—5 



186 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



Stotfold (3128), a large village and parish on the eastern 
border of the county i\ m. N.W. of Baldock, contains the Three 
Counties' Asylum, (pp. 96, 132.) 

Studham (320), a small village, the most southern of the 
county, 40 m. S. of Dunstable, was once partly in Herts, but since 
1897 wholly in Bedfordshire. The church of St Mary has nave 
arcades of the early 13th cent., and a Dec. chancel. The 
elaborate E.E. font is one of the most interesting in the county. 
(pp. 9, 101, 108.) 




The Font, St Mary's Church, Studham 



Sutton (2 1 7), a small village z\ m. N.E. of Biggleswade, has 
an E.E. and Dec. church, and a picturesque old pack-horse bridge 
of the 13th cent., one of the few remaining, (pp. 16, 99, in, 
150.) 

Swineshead (138), a little village in the N. of the county, 
3 m. S.W. of Kimbolton, formerly in Hunts. Its church, 
St Nicholas, has many details worthy of study — a canopied Easter 
sepulchre, carved stalls, etc. 



188 BEDFORDSHIRE 

Tempsford (431), a village on the Great North Road, at 
the junction of the Ouse and the Ivel ; is mentioned in. the Eng. 
Chronicle as occupied by the Danes, who probably destroyed the 
church in 1010. Earthworks, called the Gannocks, are probably 
Danish, (pp. 11, 75, 76, 77, 99, in.) 

Thurleigh (=The Leigh) (433), 7 m. N. of Bedford, has 
a fine church (St Peter) with a central Norman tower. Near by 
are moated earthworks which are probably remains of a fortified 
manor house, (pp. 16, 99, 103.) 

Tilsworth (206), a small village 2^ m. N.W. of Dunstable, 
has a Dec. church with some good tombs ; and a moated manor 
farm where the fine gateway of the now demolished ancient 
manor house still exists, (pp. 99, 132.) 

Toddington (1948), an ancient market town 55 m. E.N.E. 
of Leighton Buzzard, with a fine cruciform church with central 
tower, the nave arcade and part of the tower being E.E. It is 
specially interesting for its monuments (Peyvre, Cheyne, Went- 
worth). Straw plait manufacture still exists. Saxon relics have 
been found in the neighbourhood, (pp. 12, 53, 83, 85, 95, 96, 98, 
99> IX 5, 119, 161.) 

Xotternhoe (Tottenhoe) (450), a village 2 m. W. of Dun- 
stable on the chalk. The Perp. church has a fine oak roof with 
figures. The quarries of " Totternhoe stone," a clunch, have 
been worked for centuries for churches, and much of St Albans 
is made of it. It is now not much used. There are fine 
earthworks, which appear to have been in turn British, Saxon, 
and Norman. There are lime and cement works, (pp. 14, 26, 
70, 71, 95> 97, 99, 117, 129.) 

Turvey (841), a village on the Bucks border, 7 m. W.N.W. 
of Bedford. All Saints' church, which shows some pre-Norman 
work, a Norman font, various E.E. details, and very rich iron- 



CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLACxES 189 

work on the S. door, is however mainly of interest for its 
remarkable series of Mordaunt monuments, (pp. 22, 28, 109, 
1 34-) 

Warden, Old (406), a picturesque village 8 m. S.E. of 
Bedford, is the site of a Cistercian Abbey, of which only a few- 
remains exist. It was the origin of the famous " Warden pear." 
At Quince Hill various relics have been found, (pp. 96, 1 17.) 




Turvey Abbey 

Willington (370), a village on the Ouse, 4 m. E. of Bedford. 
There is a fine Perp. church (St Lawrence), the remains of a 
moated manor house, which has a very curious ancient dovecot, 
and some earthworks (Danish?). Roman relics have been found. 
(PP. 53, 76, 97, "5i 129.) 

Woburn (1122), a market town on the Bucks border, 
6 m. N. of Leighton Buzzard, has many attractive old houses. 
Woburn Abbey, the seat of the Duke of Bedford, was a Cistercian 



CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 191 

house, of which no remains exist. The present mansion was 
built in 1744, and contains a notable collection of pictures and 
sculpture ; the park is one of the largest in England and is 
celebrated for the very fine zoological collection which has been 
brought together by the present owner, (pp. 7, 15, 35, 37, 49, 
50, 5i, 58, 60, 72, 84, 85, 86, 96, 108, 125, 148, 163.) 

Woburn Sands, some 72 m. N. of Leighton Buzzard, is 
a recently-created ecclesiastical parish made up of the civil parish 
of Aspley Heath and parts of Aspley Guise and Wavendon. Its 
pine-woods, sandy soil, and good air have made it a well-known 
health resort. (p. 12.) 

Wootton (1394), a large straggling village and parish 4^ m. 
S.W. of Bedford, with an interesting E.E. church (St Mary) with 
a good chancel screen and monuments to the Monoux family. 

Wymington (493), a small village at the extreme N.W. of 
the county on the Northamptonshire border, 13 m. N.W. of 
Bedford. Its church (St Lawrence) is, with that of Yielden, the 
best example of Dec. in Bedfordshire, with a fine spire, good 
brasses, and two octagonal turrets at E. end, like those of 
Shillington. It was entirely rebuilt by John Curteis, Mayor of 
the Wool Staple at Calais, who died in 1 39 1 . (pp. 13,22, 70, 95, 
11 1, 112, 147.) 

Yielden (or Yelden) (177), a small village at the extreme 
N. of the county, has a very interesting Dec. church (St Mary) 
and the extensive remains of a castle of the Traillys. Dr Dell, 
Master of Caius College, the rector, incensed his parishioners by 
permitting " one Bunyan, a tinker " to preach in his church on 
Christmas Day 1659. (pp. 70,97,99, in, 11% I 5°^ l6 7-) 



192 



BEDFORDSHIRE 



England & Wales 
37,337,537 acres 

Bedfordsh 



irej - 



Fig. i. Area of Bedfordshire (302,942 acres) compared 
with that of England and Wales 



England & Wales 
36,070,492 



Bedfordshire 



Fig. 2. Population of Bedfordshire (194,588) compared 
with that of England and Wales in 191 1 



DIAGRAMS 



193 



England and Wales 6 1 8 Bedfordshire 41 



Lancashire 25150 



Fig. 3. Comparative Density of Population to the 
square mile in ign 

(Each dot represents ten persons) 




Fig. 4. Proportionate area under Corn Crops compared with 
that of other cultivated land in Bedfordshire in 1913 



194 



BEDFORDSHIRE 




Fig. 5. Proportionate area of chief Cereals in 
Bedfordshire in 1913 




cVo ^ r Rotation 



Fig. 6. Proportionate areas of land in Bedfordshire in 1913 



DIAGRAMS 



195 




Fie; 7 Proportionate numbers of Horses, Cattle, Sheep 
and Pigs in Bedfordshire in 1913 



Cambrttjp : 

PRINTED BY J. B. PEACE, M.A. 
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 



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